Blessed by the Sea
by Pirate Queen of the Century
Summary: Rewrite of Time on the Sea. Blessed by the Sea and not even aware of it Melody travels the open waters by Luffy's side. The Goal? Find the One Piece and crown Luffy the King of the Pirates! The sea holds many secrets, one of them the Government has hunted for over 17 years and sooner or later they will find out and the Straw Hats have to be prepared. LuffyXOC
1. Chapter 1: A New Beginning

**The first Chapter of the newly redone Time on the Sea, everything revealed here, I've actually had planned since the original first chapter came out if you can believe me.**

 **Welcome new readers and welcome those who have stuck around this long! Thanks for reading, I don't own anything.**

 **This Chapter comes to 8547 words, and is probably the longest of the entire story.**

 **Happy Reading, please review and let me know how it is :)**

Blessed by the Sea

Chapter 1: A New beginning

Father said that I wasn't safe with him anymore, I was sad to leave the crew, my family. Because Father is one of the strongest pirates in the world but I really didn't understand why I had to go.

So here I was backpack filled with supplies and waiting for none other than the Marine hero Monkey D. Garp to arrive and pick me up. I sat patiently on a small Grand Line island beach, while Fossa, Father's 13th division commander was hiding in the tree line behind me. Father and his ship were docked on the other side of the island hiding from view, no matter the island, I was glad that I wasn't fully alone.

An hour passed and I was getting reckless, couldn't this marine be on time. A sharp whistle came from the forest and I looked up towards the sea that was the signal. I could see a ship in the distance, its white sails had the marine logo.

I sighed, this was it. Another hour passes before a small dingy landed on the beach with three men manning the boat, the largest stepped out onto the sand.

"You must be Melody" he smiled kindly. He had a large build and greying hair "I am Monkey D Garp but you can call me Grandpa"

Another whistle sounded and I stood, that meant I was ok to go.

"Hi"

"Do you have all of your things with you?" he held out his hand.

"Yes" I took it and he helped me into the small dingy. Two other no marines were at the oars ready to depart.

"It'll be a few days before we reach the island, so there's lots of time to get to know each other. You'll meet my other grandsons, Luffy's about your age, while Ace is a few years older." Garp started chatting as the dingy shoved off. I turned back to the island and caught a glance of Fossa waving from the trees, I smiled at him and waved.

"Who are you waving too?" asked one of the rowing marines. Garp cast him a sharp look, and the poor man shivered and apologized before focusing on rowing and Garp continued talking about his other grandsons.

* * *

Once on board the large marine battleship I looked around in awe, I had only ever been on the Moby Dick and it was vastly different. Marines in crisp white uniforms ran around shouting and saluting, Garp took my hand again and led me below deck.

"This will be your room tonight, buy tomorrow we will be in the East Blue and the day after we will arrive at Dawn Island."

"Ok Mr. Garp" I took a seat on the bolted down bed, it was quite comfy for a ship bed, and with father I had a hammock with multiple blankets and pillows.

"I said to call me grandpa"

"Ok gramps" I smirked.

"Good, there's some fight in you, as expected as Newgate's daughter" he laughed, hands on his hips. "Now, since we can't have you going around with your father or even mother's last names, and since you are under my protection. You're my granddaughter, any qualms to the last name …?"

I took a few minutes to think about it, as Gramps just laughed and continued talking about random things.

"Ok"

"Good! Get settled, I'll be back in an hour, with some lunch!" Gramps laughed loudly again. This wasn't going to be a relaxing trip.

* * *

Nope, not a relaxing trip. A very boring one. I was confined to the room, not allowed to leave the cabin. And every time I asked, Gramps would just stick his tongue out at me and said because he said so. I would return the gesture and get a punch to the head.

Morning couldn't have come quick enough, Gramps was waking me before the sun rose handing me some fruit as he readied a boat to take us to Dawn Island. Instead of his regular marine uniform he was now dressed is a large flower patterned shirt and beige khaki shorts. All he needed to complete his look was socks and sandals I mused.

Gramps gathered me in his arms from the small cabin, my pack in his other hand "keep your face in" he said

And I followed.

My last look of the large marine ship was from a small dingy as Gramps rowed towards the small island. "Why did I have to do that?" I asked when we were far enough from the ship.

Gramps sighed "As much as I trust my sailors, there are always some that answer to a higher up. And it's best that the amount of people who know who you are and where I'm dropping you off is kept to a minimum."

The rest of the ride was quiet and when the dock came into view, there was a small gathering of people to greet us. A nice looking lady with dark hair had a boy standing in front of her, her hands were on his shoulders, keeping him in place.

The boy had messy black hair that poked out from under a yellow straw hat that had a red ribbon around it. He stood out to me, as the only kid that was waiting for us, with a loose t-shirt and cargo shorts, then it hit me. This must be Luffy, one of gramp's grandsons that he always talked about. He looked about my age.

"Mayor! Makino!" Nice to see you again" Gramps grinned and tied the boat up "Luffy, look at how you've grown!" He hoped on to the deck and took my hand to help me out of the boat.

"You've brought another kid home?" asked an old man who had a large hat, the man Gramps addressed as Mayor.

"Yes, this is Melody"

"Hello" I bowed.

"Hi" Luffy smiled and waved wildly at me.

"Luffy! Don't I get an excited greeting?" Garp ran forward and smacked him upside the head.

Surprisingly his head was sent forward, stretched and hit the dock with a smack.

I stared wide eyed, Gramps just knocked the kid's head off!

A single heartbeat passed, as some of the villagers sighed.

"ow ow ow ow!" Luffy's head snapped back into place and he rubbed his now red face "Gramps! That hurt!"

"LUFFY!" gramps raged "what happen to you!"

"I ate a devil fruit!" the kid laughed. And my heart calmed, ok that makes sense then.

"WHO LET YOU EAT A DEVIL FRUIT!" he turned to the mayor who backed away "wasn't me"

"Sorry grandpa, it was an accident." He continued rubbing his head.

"And where did you get that hat?! It looks a lot like that red-haired bastards…" he lifted him up by the hat.

"Hey!" the kid yelled "Shanks gave me his hat! I'm gonna be the Pirate King!"

"That damn pirate, filling your head with things, you are going to be a respectable marine, all of you!" Gramps turned to me.

"No way" I shook my head "I'm gonna be a pirate too"

"Not you too!" he gave me a smart smack and turned back to Luffy "He probably gave you that fruit too! I'm gonna ring his neck!"

"No, grandpa! He saved my life! Don't bad mouth Shanks!" Gramps scooped Luffy over his shoulder, then did the same to me. "The both of you will be proper marines! Now I'm taking you to your new home"

"Wait, Garp-san" Makino the dark haired lady tried to speak up but Gramps cut her off.

"I'm not taking them far, just up the mountain an old friend has agreed to take them in, besides my other grandson is up there too"

"Makino! I don't wanna go!"

"I'm sure you can come visit Luffy, you too Melody" the kind lady called after us as Gramps marched off into the village. Luffy was flailing and wining as the group of villagers quickly disappeared over a hill.

Laying over Gramps' shoulder was not a comfortable place to be as he hiked through the think forest, though it was a somewhat smooth ride I could feel my stomach bruising with the hours that passed by. Luffy had long stopped wining loudly and only a few mumblings about hunger every few minutes remained. That and his stomach was rumbling loudly.

I watched the trees pass by trying to remember the route back to the shore but it wasn't like Gramps was following a path. Through the think forest floor he was hoping over fallen trees and large roots. The sun was high in the sky now and I was tired of being silent, Gramps said he had another grandson…

"Hey Gramps?"

"Yes Melody?"

"Who's the other kid? Ace was it? Are we going to be living with him?"

"Yeah, he's a few years older than the two of you and he has been living the Dandan for a while now"

"Oh, ok" silence continued before I turned to look at Luffy who was flopped over Gramps' other shoulder, his hat hanging lazily. "Hey Luffy," the boy looked up

"I'm Melody" I stuck my hand out and we shook hands behind Gramps' neck. "What devil fruit did you eat?" I asked, curious.

Gramps started to grumble but didn't stop our conversation.

"The Gumu-Gumu no mi. I'm a rubber man now!" he stretched his cheeks out to impossible lengths, he looked silly and I laughed. "That's so cool!"

Gramps only grumbled some more.

* * *

What seemed like another hour passed as I chatted with Luffy about just random things; the villagers and Makino's cooking mostly. He didn't bring up Shanks just in case Gramps got angry again.

"Here we are" Gramps said suddenly and the forest ended as he walked into a large clearing. There was large wooden hut structure made of cloth and wood, almost like a tent sat in the middle of the clearing, a fire pit in the front with a pike roasting what looked like a large pig. A small man with a turban was sitting beside the fire, looking after the food.

"Food!" Luffy noticed it first, he tried to run down to it but Gramps grabbed the back of his shirt to keep him in place.

"Dandan!" Gramps yelled out. And the man jumped up, he looked like he might have been sleeping. "G-Garp…."

"Where's Dandan?"

"I-I'll get her" the man stuttered and nearly ran full out into the hut. Not long after a large woman with curly red hair, and a smoke in-between her lips walked out.

"Garp! What are you doing here?" then he noticed Luffy and I in his arms. "Oh no! I'm already looking after one of your brats, I'm not taking in two more!"

Suddenly I found myself in the dirt, gramps had dropped me, but help Luffy in his hands, as he was still trying to get free and attack the roasted pig. He was now arguing with Dandan, I didn't pay much attention, just looking around the clearing. So this was going to be my new home for a while.

"This is Melody and Luffy" I heard Garp introduce us. Luffy was quiet now and hanging loosely in Gramps' grip. He waved "hi"

I bowed "nice to meet you" the woman, Dandan wasn't fighting it now and signed heavily"

"Where is Ace? ACE COME SEE YOUR GRANDFATHER!" Gramps suddenly yelled, dropping Luffy in the process.

The boy became a puddle on the group before snapping back to normal, and I giggled, it looked funny. I stepped to his side. "How old are you anyway?" he asked

Gramps was now marching around the clearing yelling Ace's name.

"Six, almost seven though" I answered, smiling proudly.

"Ha" Luffy laughed "I'm older, I'm seven. You look like you're five!"

"Hey! I can't help that I'm small! I punched him.

"Ha! Doesn't hurt" he grinned and I scowled and pinched him grinning as he hopped up and down holding his cheek "ow!"

"There you are ACE!" I turned back to the clearing, Gramps had stopped stomping around and was now grinning, a boy had entered the clearing he was taller than both Luffy and me had a worn red shirt and black shorts covered in dirt, a bandage was over his nose covering a few of the many freckles that covered his cheeks and nose. His hair was dark and stuck up in different directions, it was messier than Luffy's I noticed.

"What do you want old man?" he didn't seem happy that gramps was here, not that I could blame him.

Gramps punched him. "That's no way to greet your grandfather!"

"Ow!" he growled, holding the now large bump that has formed.

"I want you to meet Luffy and Melody, they will be living here from now on" he grinned and motioned to the two of us, which I waved in response and Luffy said hi enthusiastically.

"I leave them in your hands. Be good kids. I'll see you later!" suddenly Gramps was gone, back into the forest

"By Grandpa!" Luffy said.

Dandan sighed and Ace just grunted "At least he didn't take me training this time…"

Luffy heard and shuddered "I know! It's awful"

Ace huffed and disappeared into the forest.

Luffy and I exchanged a confused look. I shrugged.

"Well, you might as well come in" Dandan sighed, "Dinner'll be ready in a bit"

"Yay! Food!" Luffy jumped up and down.

Dandan turned out to be the leader of a group of mountain bandits, she showed us; mostly me as Luffy wasn't paying attention, around the hut. 5 rooms made up the large structure; kitchen, bathroom, Dandan's bedroom, and two large open rooms where everyone hangs out and sleeps. Dinner was still cooking so Luffy and I sat outside, the bandits were interesting but I didn't want to hang out with them.

"Your hair is cool" Luffy said suddenly, the two of us were at the edge of the forest, sitting underneath one of the large trees.

I picked at the loose blonde hair, it was shimmering blue. I'd have to find my hair tie later. "Yeah, it does that in the sun." I said

"Why?"

"I donno, always has though"

Luffy laughed "its mystery hair"

"I guess go" I laughed as well.

"Do you want to join my pirate crew?"

"Aren't we too young?" I asked

"Right now, yeah. But when we're older!" Luffy's eyes were shinning, I remembered, he told gramps that he was going to be the Pirate King, and at that moment I knew he was going to make it or die trying.

"Ok, sure"

"Yahoo!" he jumped up and down "you'll be my first mate!"

I hummed "ok, yeah I could do that" and grinned.

* * *

Weeks passed since I left the Moby Dick and my father. Living with Luffy, Dandan, the other mountain bandits and the few times that Ace was around, it wasn't bad. I was pretty much left with Luffy to do what we wanted, but because Luffy ended up eating all of the food for the bandit's dinner that first day we arrived. So from then on we had to hunt and catch our own food, the bandits would help cook and season it but otherwise we were left alone.

"Melody!" Luffy came barrelling into the room, Straw Hat hanging around his neck. "Come on, I just saw ace leave again"

With nothing interesting to do in the mountains Luffy had decided to try and figure out where it was ace disappeared to for days at a time. I didn't mind, it was our daily adventure. "Did he go the same way as yesterday?"

"Yep!"

"Well, come on. Maybe we'll catch him today!" Luffy and I darted into the large bushy forest. Ace was fast I hopped we hadn't lost him yet.

"This way" Luffy grinned as we turned off the path "shush" he motioned beyond a large bush.

I moved a leaf out of the way and saw Ace standing there with another boy. "Who's that?"

Luffy shrugged.

"How are the brats?" asked the mystery boy, he had blond hair nearly covered with a blue top hat and a well-worn blue coat. He was missing one of his front tooth.

"Insane!" Ace sighed and leaned against a tree trunk "the cry baby and the baby keep trying to follow me around!"

"I'm not a baby" I huffed quietly

"I'm not a cry baby!" Luffy also huffed, but didn't lower his voice and suddenly the two older boys charged at our hiding place.

Ace quickly had Luffy in his hold while blond boy stopped when we met eyes. "It's a girl. Girls can't be hit…."

Ace looked at him wide eyed. While I smirked "Whoever taught you that is wrong" I pulled back and punched, making him fly back into the clearing. Ace then looked wide eyed at me "Hey!" while Luffy had stars in his eyes.

"What? You want one too?"

He shook his head.

"Ace…" the blond was sitting in the clearing rubbing his cheek "girls are scary."

"Shut up" I grumbled.

Ace still had Luffy in his grip "What are you doing, following me anyway?"

"There's nothing else to do!" the straw hat wearing boy whined "and you're cool"

Ace grumbled "well don't"

"No" Luffy said stubbornly.

I watched as the blond boy stood again and paled "Hey…. How much of our conversation did you hear?"

Confused I just shrugged, only how much they were complaining about us. "I just got here"

"I didn't hear anything about your stash of treasure…" Luffy whistled nervously and was sweating.

"Luffy!" I snapped, the idiot can't lie.

A dark look came over Ace, "We'll have to kill them…"

"No one can know" the blond agreed.

"Hey, hey I don't know anything!" I backpedaled, these guys looked scary right now.

"Mel! Don't leave me!" Luffy cried fighting to get free.

"A captain is supposed to keep his crew safe not get them killed" I screamed back, the blond was slowly heading in my direction.

"It's not like you are weak though!" Luffy yelled back.

I skirted around the blond, getting free of the bush. "One step closer and you'll get more than last time" I warned

"Sorry kid" he was about to pounce when a loud growl stopped everyone in their tracks, Ace and the boy paled while Luffy stopped fighting to get free.

"Damn it" Ace swore and dropped Luffy who cried "What was that?!"

"Did it follow us, Sabo?"

The blond, named Sabo shrugged "I donno, I thought we lost it yesterday!"

Out from the tree line across the clearing a large tiger towered over us, its growl was low and almost like a mad purr.

"Run!" I yelled, which stirred the frozen four of us, we took off into the forest, jumping over roots and fallen trees. The growling tiger was close behind.

"Duck!" Sabo turned to me while in the air, a metal pipe was in his hands, ready to swing.

I jumped over a tree log and hid under it, the tiger soared right over me and right into the waiting metal. But that only made it angrier. While it shook the hit off I ran past and caught up with the others. "Up ahead!" Luffy pointed, there were two tree trunks leaning against each other, creating a small opening. One by one we jumped though, just as Luffy made it through the tiger followed, and got its head stuck. It hissed and spat wildly, trying to get free.

Luffy laughed "Stay here kitty" he pet it atop the head. It really didn't like that and the tree shook dangerously.

We ran, terrified again.

By the time we broke the tree line we were all laughing. The view opened up to the ocean, open sand and beach stretched right around as far as you could see. The first time I've seen the vast ocean in weeks. It hit me that this has been the longest time that I've spent on dry land. My heart ached, I wanted to be on the sea again, feel the spray of the ocean across my cheeks, and feel the freedom.

"What's with you?" Ace snapped me out of my thinking.

"I've missed the ocean a lot."

"Did you sail?" asked Sabo he had a longing look in his eyes and I grinned.

"Yeah, all my life. This is actually the longest amount of time I've stayed on dry land"

"Why?" asked Luffy

"We'll my father is a pretty famous pirate, he told me I had to leave because it wasn't safe anymore."

"Really?!" Luffy gasped. "Who?"

"I'm not allowed to tell"

Ace was now looking at me funny too, while Luffy sighed and pouted. I shrugged at them "but I got to meet you three, you're funny"

"I'm heading back" Ace said suddenly.

"Ace, ok" Sabo turned to follow him into the woods.

"Wait up!" Luffy yelled and the two of us started after the older boys. They were still quick to move through the growth, even though Luffy and I were painting from the run from the tiger. They weren't too far away, Luffy was yelling at them to slow down.

"Don't follow us!" Ace yelled back, back to his original personality, even though he was laughing with us only minutes ago.

Luffy stopped and pouted, I stopped at his side and took his hand "Come on" he grinned and we continued following them.

We only got two steps forward when a hand clamped down on my arm, Sabo's coat just disappeared behind some bushes.

"Stop right there kid" A large adult with a worn vest and brown pants towered over me.

"Let me go!" I demanded and twisted my body to give him a solid kick where the sun don't shine. But he caught my foot and lifted me right into the air. Luffy was ripped from my hand as another man started struggling with him.

"You're coming with us"

Darkness surrounded me as the man roughly stuffed me into a large sack, I could hear Luffy yelling for Sabo and Ace. I punched and kicked inside the sack as the man threw me over his shoulder. "Ace! Sabo!" I joined in the yelling.

Suddenly I landed hard on the root filled ground, the wind knocked out of my lungs.

"Quiet down now"

I struggled for breath as I was picked up once again and another man threatened to drop me again if Luffy didn't shut up. My Straw Hat captain instantly went quiet, I didn't know what worried me most.

* * *

The two men carried us for a long time, both were huffing and complaining about Ace and Sabo the whole way. As we slowed down I heard a door creak open, then shut behind us. I was roughly dug out of the sack and had my hands tied behind my back tightly. Looking around we were inside a small wooden shack, a bunch of men filled the small space, the scent of sweat, dirt and alcohol was strong and awful.

I could only watch as Luffy was bound and hung from the ceiling.

My feet were free so I tried to dart out between the men's legs but was roughly shoved back onto my butt and a man secured me to a pole.

"Let us go!" Luffy yelled as he swung back and forth.

"Maybe I will" a long haired blond man stepped forward, he had a single hooped earing and a sword at his hip. "But I need some information first.

I scowled at him, he had to be a pirate, or maybe a bandit.

"Where did those two brats hide the treasure they stole from us, my captain is not a happy man"

"I donno" Luffy lied, poorly.

The man punched him and Luffy laughed "that didn't hurt" his rubber body was coming in handy.

"So… a devil fruit user…" he pinched Luffy's cheeks and stretched "rubber" he mused "no matter, as a pirate I've encountered many of you" he grinned evilly.

I paled as he turned back to the other pirates and grabbed a spike club one of the men was holding. "If you won't tell me, I'll have to beat it out of you"

I watched, horrified as the pirate started hitting Luffy, blood sprayed across my shirt as I cried "Stop it! Stop it!"

He turned to me "Do you know where the gold is girl?" the bloody club was dripping,

"Stop hurting my friend! I wouldn't tell you even if I did know!"

He bent down to me, a bloodied hand grabbed my chin warm and sticky it ran down my shirt.

"It's too bad I can't hurt you, I was told from my men that you're the daughter of some big pirate. I wonder who?" he grinned and my gaze hardened.

"Well, not that it matters, a pretty girl like you will get me a lot of beli"

"Don't you touch her!" Luffy yelled tiredly.

"Don't worry, I won't but I'm sure her new master will, the slave business is quite booming lately" he laughed darkly as Luffy and I paled. My heart started racing "Don't tell him anything Luffy, we don't sell out friends!"

"Ok" Luffy started to cry and my heart didn't stop. I was sure I was going to become a slave at that moment, my body was shaking.

"You little shit!" the pirate swung, catching Luffy in the middle. "I've had enough of this" he tossed the club and unsheathed his sword. "It's time to die!"

Everything happened so fast, I screamed for Luffy just as Sabo and Ace break into the hut, they take down the blond pirate and his crew mates, Ace quickly cuts Luffy down as Sabo untied my hands. The four of us quickly escaped the hut as the pirates yelled and tripped over themselves after us. We ran out into what looked like a junk yard, and disappeared into the treeline.

Once we were safely into the woods and far from the pirates and junk yard Luffy started to cry and my shakes hasn't stopped. Sabo dug out some bandages from one of his pockets and started to take care of Luffy's wounds. "Do you wanna die!" he yelled as he did so. "Now Bluejam's never gonna leave us alone."

"That was scary! I fowt I was gonna die and that Mel was gonna be taken away!" Luffy cried.

I took a seat on a tree root, and hugged my knees to my chest. "he was gonna make me a slave…."

"Not now, you're here now, away from them" Ace stepped forwards

"Thanks…" I gave him a shaky smile.

Luffy continued bawling.

"Shut up! How long are you going to cry for any way? I hate weaklings and cry-babies" Ace did a one eighty and yells.

Luffy sniffles and tries to hold his tears "shank you… for saving me…." Sabo finishes with his wounds and turns to Ace's the boy had a few scraps from the tussle as well. "Goddamn it" Ace grumbles

"Hey, hey" Sabo smacks his raging friend. "They are just thanking us"

"I don't get it! Why didn't you crack? Those men were criminals! There were about to kill you!"

"But…. If I told them, we wouldn't be friends anymore!" Luffy argues

"Friends don't sell out friends" I joined in.

"But I'd still be better than dying wouldn't it?!" Why do you want to be friends with me anyway?" Ace points at the two of us accusingly "Do you know how much shit the two of you put me though!"

Luffy stands, a bit shakily "but we have no one else to rely on!"

I nod.

"I can't go back to Fuchsia Village, Mel can't see her family. Maybe forever!"

Over the months it has really been only Luffy and I, the bandits seemed to ignore us, and I opened up to him, enough ….except for dad's identity…

"If we didn't chase you… then we'd be alone and… that hurts, more than these" he motioned to his bandages.

"What about your parents?" Ace askes, stunned.

"Grampa's all I got"

"I probably won't ever see my father again"

"So… you want me around?" Ace asked quietly.

"yep" Luffy and I answered together.

"You want me to life….?"

"Of course!" Luffy yelled

Ace starts scratching his head, a nervous tick I noticed as time went on, it shifted the bandages that covered his head. "But… I hate spoiled brats like you, y'know."

Luffy jumps closer to ACE "I'm not a spoiled brat! I'm Strong! I'm gonna be the King of the Pirates!"

"Strong? Pirate King….you cry like a girl!"

"Hey!" I crossed my arms across my chest. "Girls are stronger than we look!"

Sabo laughed "that's true, come, on, let's go"

* * *

Months passed and Sabo moved into the bandit's hut, we caused even more trouble for Dandan each day. We trained to get stronger, explored and we took trips down to Fuchsia Village visiting the Mayor and Makino the bar maid that made a very good apple pie.

Ace and Sabo explained about the Grey Terminal and Goa Kingdom towering above.

Luffy, Sabo, Ace and I were walking through Fuchsia Village on our way to Makino's bar, the kind lady had gotten us new clothes and the boys had their manners lesson. Ace had asked Makino to teach them, I'm not sure why but it was something to do a few times a week.

"Good afternoon" The four of us greeted Makino when we entered the bar.

"Hello everyone" the dark haired lady smiled "sit down, food will be ready soon, also here." She placed a bag on the bar top "The clothes I picked up, let me know if anything is too small or big"

"Thank you very much" Ace bowed, they had gone over those last week.

"It's no trouble Ace-kun"

"Food please, Makino!" Luffy cheered, as he hopped up onto his usual bar stool. Straw Hat firmly on his head.

Lunch was as good as ever. The boys and I helped with the dishes, in payment for the lessons. Makino took the boys out to a fallen tree for their lesson. I usually only joined in when Makino decided to go through world history or math, but the otherwise I sat on the beach, enjoying the sun and sounds of the waves.

The ocean was always calming.

I returned to the bar sometime later, the boys had just finished up their lesson and when Luffy noticed me walking up he started running "Mel! Guess what we learned about today!" he jumped up and down "marriage, and relationships and birthdays!"

"Why birthdays?"

"Because Makino says its important day to remember" Luffy grinned.

"So when's your birthday?" I asked.

"May 5th! Ace's January 1st and Sabo is March 20th"

"Oh, so we missed both yours and Sabo's"

"Yah, that's ok though cause we didn't know it was important" Luffy grins "When's your birthday?"

I hummed, "Actually I think it's pretty soon. July 31st"

Luffy gasped "Ace! Sabo! Mel's birthday is soon!"

The two boys who were sitting at the bar with Makino turned around "really?" asked Sabo.

"July 31st!"

"Oh, that's only next week" Makino hummed "We'll have a party!"

"Oh, thank you very much Makino" I blushed, at least it wouldn't be my first birthday alone "thanks guys"

Sabo grinned while Ace sighed "now we've only got a week to find you a birthday present!"

"You don't have too…"

"No!" Luffy cut in "Makino said that people get presents on their birthdays!"

"Ok" I smiled.

* * *

I know the boys are keeping something from me, they've been sneaky and quiet for days. With just two days until my birthday, I knew it was something to do with my present. I couldn't wait to see what it was.

We has just returned to the bandit hideout after a training session when Ace, who was leading the way suddenly stopped. "Gramps is here…"

"Ace!" the booming voice of Gramps cut through the forest.

"It's too late to run" wined Luffy as we exited the tree line to see Gramps, standing there with his hands on his hips. Same as months ago when he dropped Luffy and I here. Hawaiian shirt and khaki shorts.

"Luffy and Melody! Come say hi to you grandfather"

"Hi Gramps" I waved.

"Hi Grandpa" Luffy said quietly. Ace just scoffed which earned him a wack over the head "Respect your grandfather!"

"Ow! That hurt!"

"My fist of love is only a true showing of my feelings!" Gramps huffed and then noticed Sabo, who was hanging back about to escape back into the forest.

"And who's this?"

Sabo stopped "I'm Sabo"

"Sabo, come over here, you can be my grandchild too" Gramps grinned wildly, and Sabo paled having heard horror stories from Ace and Luffy. He took the decision to run for it but was caught and wacked over the head. Gramps then gathered each of us into his arms in a hug, even Luffy was uncomfortably crushed.

Once free Ace grumbled "What are you doing here?"

"It accurd to me that Melody had never had a true training trip with me!" He laughed "the two of us are going to go camping for the weekend!"

Shocked I couldn't say anything until Luffy yelled "You can't, it's Mel's birthday soon! And you'll kill her!"

"Then it's the perfect birthday present! I would never kill my grandchildren, Luffy!" he wacked him "All of my training is so that you all will become upstanding marines!"

"I'm gonna be a pirate!" Yelled Luffy.

That only started up another argument about Shanks, Luffy had shared that story with how he got his hat months ago.

"Is he always like this?" asked Sabo

Ace nodded "yep and welcome to the family, you're stuck with him too now"

Sabo groaned.

"Come on Melody!" Gramps scooped me up under his arm

"But gramps Makino is holding a party and everything for me!" I argued, and struggled to get free.

"That'll just have to wait!" he marched off as Luffy, Ace and Sabo were yelling behind us.

I huffed, disappointed throughout the whole hike. Deeper and deeper into the mountains. Even I didn't recognize anything around us after months of exploring. Finally we arrived, Gramps stopped in front of a large cave.

"We'll stay here tonight, but it looks like there is something inside. Take care of it will you?"

"Wha?" Suddenly Gramps just threw me into the opening. I rolled as I hit the stone, spinning right into something large and furry.

A heart beat passed as my eyes adjusted to the dark. A growl made my chest rumble, towering above me was a large bear

Metal clinked and a pole rolled into my back. I grabbed it and jumped out of the way just as the large animal swiped a paw with sharp claws, missing by just inches.

"Oh my god!" I slid under the bear's legs as it went for another swipe. "Gramps!"

If he did hear my yells, he did nothing about it.

"Fine, come and get me!"

The bear roared and charged. I jumped up, it sailed under me and I landed on its back. A few good hits to the back of the head had the bear down and out.

Gramps then made his entrance, clapping happily "Good Job Melody, that'll be perfect for dinner"

I groaned and slipped onto the stone ground, my heart still beating fast in my chest.

"You're stronger than last I saw you. Good" he dragged the bear outside and began skinning it.

"Go grab some wood for the fire"

I huffed but obediently went out.

And I ended up having to fight a group of crazy monkeys that didn't like me being in their territory. It was already dark out when I returned bruised, bloody and tired with an armful of wood only to see Gramps sitting in front of a raging fire which with mouth-watering bear meat slowly roasting.

"That was an ok time" he grinned as I dropped the wood at his feet.

"Gramps!" I roared, about to attack him uselessly but he wacked me up the head and I landed harshly in the dirt.

"Be respectful!"

Immediately I mumbled "Yes Sir"

"Hey, I'm your grandfather now, this is to make you strong, and you know just how strong you have to be to survive out there." He was sat back down by the fire "It's my job to make sure you are ready"

"Yes, Gramps" I knew that, I know just how hard the grand line is, the new world even more….

"Now, get over here and eat your dinner"

I sat up and shuffled over beside him. Gramps passed me a stick of the roasted meat which I dug into immediately, soon after I fell asleep listing to Gramps stories and adventures.

* * *

He couldn't believe that it was this time already, never had Garp ever witnessed an uncontrolled Blessed before, and White beard was adamant that she never found out, if she knew now, at such a young age. She wouldn't be able to control it, and it would do more harm than good to both her, and the sea.

Melody was peacefully sleeping just inside the cave having made a bed out of loose grass and leaves from the edge of the forest floor, she had learned a lot these past months… He watched her carefully waiting for the first sign to start, the Fever, than the hallucinations, the pull of the sea would try to take her, than the real power would kick in. According to Whitebeard it would be the hardest part of the day. Garp didn't know he was in for.

It was just after midnight that the fever started, Garp kept to Melody's side, cool water and a wash cloth were her only relief. Hours later, nearing 4am and the sun started to rise, it was like she was trapped in a nightmare. Garp thanked the gods as he held her down that she would never remember anything of the next 24 hour.

Her real birthday was filled with the blessed power of the sea. No one truly understands why it happens other than the highest of officials of the World Government, but they hunted the Blessed Women ruthlessly. To keep it a secret, hide something that even Garp didn't know.

Daylight hit the cave opening when Melody first tried to leave the cave. Her eyes had turned a clear blue, open and unseeing. Garp was forced to restrain her inside, keeping a tight hold on the rope.

That was how the 2 ten year olds and one 7 year old found them.

"Gramps! What are you doing?!" Luffy yelled.

"What's wrong with Mel?" Ace's tone was dark and what Garp could tell, Protective. He felt a swell of pride for his Grandsons, Sabo his newest was just staring wide-eyed.

"You shouldn't be here!" Garp yelled. He couldn't do much else as he had a good grip on the surprisingly strong girl, her strength was growing by the minute.

"Answer Us!" Ace demanded, Luffy was close to crying.

Garp didn't have much of a choice as the 4th stage set in. High winds gathered around Melody, her hair and eyes began glowing brightly.

"I'll explain later, we have to keep her away from the water!" Garp was yelling above the winds. The 3 boys nodded, seriously and got to work.

Garp couldn't believe how well the three worked together, in no time the ropes around her were secured and tied down. Melody hadn't made a sound. Each of them tried to talk some sense into her but their words wouldn't, couldn't get through to her.

The wind kicked up harder as the day wore on, the four of them successfully kept her in the cave. Night came and the wind died down, though her eyes stayed blue the glowing had died down. She wasn't trying to get away so Garp placed her back on her grass bedding. Soon the fever would return and the day would be over.

Garp turned to his waiting grandsons, he'd have to explain now, so he did. As best he could.

"So Mel doesn't have control" Sabo asked.

"No, she can't until she's older and strong enough to support that power" Garp Explained.

"And she won't remember anything?" Luffy was sitting at her side, wiping her forehead.

"No she won't, her father explained it to me. The government must never find out that she is the blessed." He said seriously, and glanced at Ace "it could be as bad or even worse that your position"

Luffy and Sabo were confused, but knew to not ask about Ace's past, he would tell them in time.

"Ok, we'll keep her safe!" Luffy declared "I'm her captain it's my job!"

"Anyway, wouldn't it be bad if you disappeared from the marines every year at this time…" mused Sabo.

"That's why you're the smart grandson" Garp laughed "so I'll have to intrust her to you three…" he sighed

"Now get some sleep, all of you!"

"Yes, Gramps" they replied and the three boys got comfy beside Melody. Each having decided to protect the girl. Ace went to bed thinking maybe he's found a family.

* * *

I woke up more rested that I had ever been. First I noticed that ace, Luffy and Sabo were lying around me. My cuts, bruises were dull now, and nothing hurt. I couldn't see Gramps anywhere, so I shook Ace's shoulder "Hey, Ace... where's the monster? Is he gone?"

"Wha… Mel! Do you mean gramps?"

"Yeah"

Now Sabo was slowly waking up. "He left, you've been out for a full day"

"Melody!" Luffy cried, now wide away and grinning "you're awake!"

"Wha. How long have I been out? I didn't think I was that tired…"

"Don't worry about it" Ace said. So I shrugged "ok, I'm feeling great right now!"

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Luffy jumped, knocking me back onto the grass sleep mat. Ace and Sabo joined in.

"Thanks guys" I grinned.

"Come on! Ace, Sabo Can we show her now?!"

"Show me what?" now I was curious.

"Come on!" Luffy took my hand.

"Later we're gonna go to makino's and have a big party, there's gonna be cake, and meat!"

I grinned and chatted with Luffy as we trucked back down the mountain, with no sign of the crazed monkeys, which I was thankful for. We made it to the Bandit's hide out, but instead of stopping, Ace and Sabo led the wat into the woods to a large tree, where a treehouse sat at the top. It was a few meters into the woods from the hideout.

"Did you guys build this?" I asked, amazed.

"Yep!" Sabo grinned "this is our house now, we don't have to rely on Dandan"

"It's so cool! Come on, come on!" Luffy led the way up and showed me around the round platform and lookout tower.

"It's Awesome!" I was grinning widely.

"Isn't it!"

"We did ok" Ace smiled.

"Let's go to Makino's now! It's lunch time!" Luffy was rearing to go again.

"After, we'll give you your present" Sabo grinned.

"You got me more? Guys, this is awesome enough"

"Of course" Ace said "Come on, we'll race you to Makino's"

"Last one there's a chicken!" Cried Sabo as he and Ace took off.

"No fair!" Luffy yelled "Come on Mel!"

I managed to pull ahead of Luffy only for him to slingshot himself into the wall of Makino's bar, winning the race.

"You cheater!" Roared Ace.

Luffy just laughed.

Once inside I could see many of the bandits, Dandan, old man mayor and villagers were all here to celebrate. A large cake sat on the bar top and everyone sang as I walked in.

The party went on for hours. The boys and I fought over the cake and food but it was the most fun I've had in a while.

"Thanks so much guys" I grabbed them in a hug. Ace was groaning trying to get away. "Don't fight the love!"

"Now you're sounding like Gramps!" Luffy screamed.

When the party died down I had a new bag of clothes from Makino and the mayor had gotten me a black hairband with a white flower on it. Dandan and the bandits collected blankets for all of use to use in the new tree house.

We returned to our new home as the sun had set, "Now! For your present!" Luffy grinned and raced inside.

Ace disappeared past a curtain that led to the look out and came back with a small chest, I didn't see it when Luffy showed me around earlier in the day.

"We swiped it from some noble in the town a while ago" Explained Sabo.

I took the chest carefully and put it in my lap.

"Well, open it!" Demanded Ace.

Sitting on a puff of silver cloth, maybe silk was a fruit the size of my head. It was yellow and had a pattered grove going around it. "Oh guys! This is a devil fruit!"

Luffy Grimaced "They taste bad…"

I took the fruit into my hands and noticed the note.

Speed Speed Fruit

Type: Paramecia

Only known ability is giving the user extreme speed.

At the bottom in loopy script was a note that I couldn't read, and judging by the boy's looks they couldn't either.

"This is awesome!" I screamed and tackled the boys "Thank you so much!"

"Well, are you going to eat it?" asked Sabo

I nodded "Yeah, here goes nothing" Luffy looked away, looking a little green. And I took a large bite and gagged.

The taste was indescribable, the worst thing in the world.

"See, it's gross!" Luffy looked even greener.

I nodded, but kept chewing, each bite was worse than the last but eventually it was finished.

"BLAGH!" I dry heaved "That was horrible!"

"Do you feel any different?" asked Ace

I took a few seconds to think "not really… my hearts racing though"

"Maybe you can move fast now, try running" Suggested Sabo.

I stood and was planning to do a short sprint to the other side of the fort. Except I ended up going right through the fort wall and landed roughly on the forest floor.

I sat there, stunned. That was fast!"

"Mel!"

"Melody!" the boys yelled down

"Are you ok?"

I grinned and ran up the tree, though my newly made hole and slammed right into Luffy. We fell onto a heap on the floor. "Yep, I'm gonna have to practice stopping…" I helped Luffy to his feet, while brushing off the bits of wood and twigs that stuck to my hair and clothes.

"Now we're gonna need to fix the wall!" Ace yelled.

"Oops, sorry: I grinned sheepishly and everyone burst out laughing.

I woke up the next morning feeling so hungry and tired, I had turned into a big eater like Luffy. Ace was already up, I looked out over the look out, he had breakfast cooking down below over a small fire.

"Ace!" I yelled down "Is breakfast ready? I'm hungry!" I tried to walk down to him but still moved too fast and knocked him over. Everything seemed like a blur when I ran.

"Hey!" he frowned as he picked himself up.

"Sorry"

"Come here and eat" he handed me some food on a stick, which I greedily munched down, not really caring what was on it, a meat of some sort.

"Sabo's gone out to grab some sake"

"Why?" I asked, finishing off my third stick already.

"Because the three of us boys have decided to become brothers. You know, since we're living together and all"

"Oh…. What about me?" I wondered, in the back of my mind if they were going to kick me out, I was a girl after all.

"Well, you're not a boy and from what I know there's no pirate way for you to become a brother… but Makino had said that the best way to get a sister into the family is to be married in"

"Hmm… yeah, that makes sense. So, who should I marry, I can't marry all of you"

"Well, Sabo and I thought that, me, the eldest would be better"

"But I promised to be Luffy's first mate. How can I be married to you if we're on different crews?"

Ace blinked. "Oh, right… Then Luffy is best" he nodded, and put on some more meat. I had finished off all the cooked bits.

I sat beside the fire, tummy nice and full. Not really trusting myself to move around just yet. "So, how does someone get married?"

Ace was sputtering, trying to explain when Luffy suddenly shot out of the tree house, I hadn't noticed him in there when I woke up.

"Morning Mel! You slept a long time again!"

"I was tired" I huffed "going fast tires me out quickly…"

Luffy nodded "you're going to have to train more now"

Ace turned to him "I just filled Mel in on what's gonna happen once Sabo gets back, and since she's gonna be part of your crew, its best if she marries you"

"YATTA!" Luffy jumped "See, I told you I was best!"

"So it's Luffy?" Sabo arrived, a large bottle of what must be Sake in his arms.

"Yep!" I grinned "Then you too will be my big brothers!"

Sabo turned to Ace who shrugged "they already promised to be pirates together"

"That makes sense" Sabo said as he placed the sake down and poured three glasses. Ace left the food to cook and everyone sat around the cups.

"We might set out as pirates independently. But our brotherhood will always be with us" Ace said

"Woo!" Luffy cheered.

"Where ever you are, whatever you do, we'll always be bonded together" Ace picked up his cup "From now on, we're brothers!"

They clinked their cups together and downed the clear drink.

The three of them immediately started coughing and I laughed.

"That burns" wined Sabo

Luffy spat and spit "Yucky"

Ace just held it in, coughing only slightly.

"I'm gonna be the King of the Pirates" Luffy crowed to the heavens.

"I'm gonna sail the sea, and be free!" Sabo joined in.

"I'm gonna be known worldwide and show that I live!" Ace grinned.

"Now it's my turn!" I jumped up and down "I'm gonna have a grand adventure, and conquer the seas with Luffy! Now how do we marry?"

Then Sabo blushed "Well, Makino said you have to declare yourselves and kiss"

"Ok" Luffy and I said together, what was wrong with that?

Sabo groaned "it can't be that easy"

"from here on you two will be bonded, you promise to watch each other's backs and stay together" Ace crossed his arms

"Yes!" we said together.

"Ok, now kiss"

I leaned forward and kissed Luffy's cheek like I've seen others do back with father's crew. And he did the same to mine.

Sabo sighed "I guess that works"

"yahoo!" Luffy cheered.


	2. Chapter 2: 10 years later

A little bit earlier for you guys this time! Hope you enjoy, please review and let me know what you think!

Word count: 7037 (just a bit lower than the first chapter)

Next Chapter: Gathering More Crew Members - August 8th 2016

Blessed by the Sea

Chapter 2: Ten Years Later

Luffy and I had only left Dawn Island 3 days ago, and already our food supply was gone, well, not that it was very large in the beginning anyway. The barrel of apples was given to us by Makino which Luffy now sat on top of, looking out over the water. His stomach growled in sync with mine. "Melody, I'm hungry!" Luffy wined and flopped back to look at me from atop the barrel.

I hit him up the head. "You wouldn't be if you hadn't eaten everything so fast!"

"You ate a lot too!" he yelled back, unfazed by the hit.

"Are you calling me fat?!" I yelled, scandalized.

"No, Sorry" I still huffed and crossed my arms, the both of us were hungry if we didn't reach an island, or even another boat soon we were going to be in trouble. But it was nice to be back on the sea, so far my almost non- existent sailing skills have kept us afloat and I managed to keep us from falling into a whirlpool the other day.

"Look ahead!" Cried Luffy, he was pointing at ship in the distance

"Is that a ship?" I raised a hand to block the sun from my eyes.

"It looks like two" pointed out Luffy "a Pirate ship attacking a cruise ship maybe"

He always had the better sight out of the two of us, and was properly correct.

"Might be"

He broke out into a grin "Come on! They might have food, start rowing!"

"Hai, Hai" I slid over the bench and picked up one of the oars as Luffy tied the sail and slid in beside me and took the other.

We rowed for about 20 minutes before we made it up close. A bright pink pirate ship, shaped like a heart was attached to a fancy looking cruise ship. A few planks of wood and ropes were all that were connecting them.

"What do you think Captain?" There were no signs of fighting, but some faint yelling above. I turned to Luffy who was listening carefully.

"Go check out the kitchen, see what you can grab. Seems like they're just doing a raid."

"Ok" I took the docking rope in hand and scaled up the cruise ship's side securing our little boat onto a railing. "See you in a bit" I took off, everything slowed down. As I explored the ship, pirates and cruise passengers were in some big ballroom, the pirates collecting jewellery and beli from the frightened people. Everywhere else was bare, except the few people hiding in closets or rooms. There was no one in the kitchen area so I slowed to a walk and found the pantry doors.

Opening the door I noticed a Pink haired boy with large round glasses who was collecting items in a cloth bag. Pirate or maybe a cabin boy?

"Hey"

The boy nearly jumped out of his skin as he turned. He only seemed a bit younger than Luffy and myself. His jump caused him to spill the contents of the bag, which happened to be apples. "Great, thanks" I grinned and in a few seconds finished one of them off "That was refreshing"

"Who are you?" the Boy yelled as he backed into a packed shelf, shaking like a leaf. "Where did you come from?"

"I'm Melody, and when two people love each other very much-"

"Stop! Not like that!" he screamed.

I laughed "Sorry kid, my Captain and I are just passing by, but we ran out of food so…" I shrugged looking around the pantry.

He laughed nervously "well you better get out of here, it's the Alvida Pirates that are attacking this ship"

I hummed, never heard of them andstarted digging through the shelves "So, what are you? Pirate or Passenger?"

"Ha…" he blushed and wrung his hands "I accidently got on the wrong boat… I've been working as a cabin boy… in exchange for my life"

"Oi! Melody!" Luffy suddenly came flying past the open door. I stuck my head out and called him over.

"Did you find some food?" he grinned.

"Yep, here" I tossed him one of the fallen apples and finished off my second.

"Who's this?"

"I'm Coby" the pink haired boy said quietly.

"Hi!" Luffy had his signature grin on "I'm Monkey D Luffy!"

"He's been kept aboard with those pirates above" I mused

"It's not like I enjoy staying with them!"

"Why don't you just run away?" Asked Luffy between bites of apples.

"No way!" Coby shook his head roughly "if Alvida even so much as knew I was thinking about it, I'd be killed!"

I scoffed.

"Oh, so you're a wimp…. I hate people like you" Luffy said it with a smile and Coby slapped his own face "you're brutally honest…"

"Besides, those Pirates up there, I've already knocked them out"

"All of them?!" Coby exploded

"What of the passengers?" we didn't need them running around either I sighed

"Yep shishishi. They're locked in the ballroom" he grinned.

That works. I shrugged and nodded. "Cool, now help me gather some stuff" I passed by the stunned Coby and began packing away some packaged food. "We better get out of here quick anyway, someone must have alerted the Marines"

"The Marines….." I heard Coby mutter "Maybe…."

"Looks like you're free kid" I ruffled his short hair "what are you gonna do?"

Luffy took an interest and looked over as Coby began to shake "I wanna…. I wanna" he seemed to put himself together "What is your dream Luffy-san?"

I scoffed, sure don't ask the girl who met you first…

Luffy grinned "I'm gonna be the King of the Pirates!"

"What!" Coby's mouth fell open, gaping "S-so you're both pirates? What about your crew?"

"Don't have one yet, it's just the two of us so far" the boy's m shock was pretty amusing I grinned.

"But, but. The Pirate King is the Pirate with everything. Money, fame, power! The One Piece! That's impossible. No way. No way."

Luffy punched him in the head, effectively shutting him up. "Doesn't matter, even if I die in the process it's my dream and I'm gonna do it!"

There was a tense second, as Luffy challenged Coby to speak up.

"Your dream… if you can do that, with no worries of dying…" he sniffled, but held his head up high "I wanna be a Marine! It's my dream of catching bad guys! I'm gonna be an admiral!" his hope filled eyes held Luffy's "Do you think I can do it?"

Luffy smiled and said honestly "How should I know?"

The boy grinned, determined "No, I'm gonna do it! I'm not going to be a pirate cabin boy for the rest of my life! Alvida can fuck off!" he yelled, hands clenched at his sides huffing and puffing.

Good job kid.

"Come on" I lifted the now filled bag of supplies and threw it over my shoulder "why don't you say that to her face"

"What?"

I grinned at Luffy who scooped him up and we raced to the top deck which was now littered with groaning pirate grunts and one large fat lady dressed like a pink cowboy.

"Y-you're fast" Coby groaned as Luffy plunked him down in front of the groaning lady as he grinned madly.

"Mel's even faster than me"

I nodded and grinned "no one can beat me in a race" pointing a thumb at my chest.

"C-Coby… you betrayed me" the lady was coming around, she glared up at the pink haired boy. "To a pirate hunter no less"

"Hey! I'm a pirate" Luffy pouted and crossed his arms "She won't believe me" he turned to me.

"I'll kill you Coby!"

The poor boy was shaking, stuck to the one spot "You know, she can't hurt you anymore" I whispered in his ear.

That made him still and turn to me, a shocked look plastered on his face, I smiled and he turned to Luffy, inspired.

He took a deep breathe a glared at Alvida "NO, you won't cause you're the ugliest hag in all the seas! The fattest too I'm gonna become a Marine and bring you in!"

Luffy and I burst into laughter as Alvida grew a twitch in her brow. "You Bastard!" she spat out and got to her feet.

Coby was rooted to the spot again.

She swung back her arm which I just noticed was clutching a mace. Poor Coby began to scream in terror.

"Well said" Grinned Luffy, he stepped in front of the boy and took the hit with no problem, laughing all the while.

"Don't you know now, that won't work. I'm made of rubber!"

Coby gasped as Luffy propelled his fist back to its furthest stretching point, spanning well past the length of the ship.

"Gomu Gomu no Pistol!"

It snapped back, catching the woman dead centre.

I raised a hand to block the sun and watched her fly off into the distance "10 points" I declared.

"Wha!" Luffy turned to me and wined "only ten…."

I shrugged "I saw her land."

"Damn, she was too heavy" he pouted.

"L-luffy-san …" Coby stuttered

He didn't have time to ask about what he just saw because Cannon balls began to fly around us, hitting the horrendous pink pirate ship.

"It's the Marines!" he pointed out

"Oh, perfect, you should go talk to them" said Luffy

I rolled my eyes "Lu, it's probably not the best time. They'll think he's a pirate if the other passengers say they don't know him"

Coby Screamed, "Oh no!"

"Oh, Well I guess you could come with us until the next island" Luffy shrugged and grabbed the pink boy around his waist and before the kid could give his answer Luffy jumped off the side of the ship. "Come on Mel! Let's get out of here!" he yelled from bellow, safely on our small ship.

"Aye, Aye Captain!" I jumped, landing softly even with the bag of supplies over my shoulder. We took off quickly, skirting around the cruise ship and away from the single Marine ship that had come to save them.

"How… how did we get away" Coby asked aloud

"Because they were too busy focusing on the huge pink pirate ship" I mumbled

The three of us were all laying on the ship's floor or benches, exhausted from the rowing. The Boat was just drifting with the soft wind now.

"Sorry, I never introduced myself, I'm Melody"

"Nice to meet you" he nodded in my direction "So… what's the plan now?"

"We've got to find some Nakama!" Cheered Luffy. He sat up, energy returned. "What do you know about Roronoa Zoro?"

I shrugged while Coby jumped in fright "where did you hear that name?!"

"That fat lady thought he was me" said Luffy "So, who is he?"

"Pirate Hunter Zoro is the strongest hunter in the east blue! A very strong swordsman!"

I glanced at Luffy who was grinned madly "he sounds interesting"  
I turned to Coby "So kid, where can we find this Pirate Hunter?" and leaned down to his level, not that he was much shorter than me.

"Oh no! nonononononono! He's too dangerous"

Luffy wacked him up the head "I've decided, he's going to be our next nakama!"

"L-Luffy!" Coby panicked

My captain just laughed and ignored him "lead the way Coby!"

I grinned as he groaned and cleaned his glasses "He was last seen in Shell Town…"

I ruffled his hair "Ok then, let's get going"

"Yahoo!" Luffy Cheered.

Coby went to the sail and turned us west and took a seat at the front to watch the seas. I sat back and watched the clouds go by, being on the sea was amazing. It's been so long, I couldn't believe it had been 10 years. Luffy hadn't changed much, gotten taller but was still a skinny build, he didn't look like he had any muscles but that was thanks to the devil fruit. I was now just a hair taller than Luffy, mostly because my hair sat in a high pony tail. Before we left home Makino had gotten us each a gift. Luffy got the red vest that he now wore everyday while got a pair of blue goggles to use when I go too fast. The wind still bugged my eyes sometimes. Instead of the regular jeans and t-shirts that Makino usually picked up for me I now wore a black swim suit top that crossed in the back, blue goggles hung around my neck and a pair of baggy tan shorts a small leather bag wrapped around the short's belt hoops and rest against my left hip, inside had everything I brought with me from the island. Some Beli we saved up and the small cloth flower that was on the headband of my first Birthday present from the Mayor.

"You ok?" Asked Luffy as he took a seat beside me.

I grinned "Never better" and gave me a chase kiss. As kids we didn't really understand the means that we went through to become family, and then as we got older… everything just fit. I have to admit that hormones kicked in and helped things along a bit. "My captain"

"My wife"

I grinned "Yes of course dear"

"I'm not that old! Dear is for old people" Luffy pouted

"Of course Captain" I laughed.

A few hours later the island was in sight. I had my feet dangling in the sea water, just enjoying the cool feeling and the warm sun. Luffy had taken the seat at the front again, twitching in excitement.

Coby was looking confused, he looked towards Luffy and asked "Why do you stretch Luffy-san?"

"Oh?" he turned around to face the boy "I'm a rubber man. I ate the Gomu-Gomu no mi" Luffy grinned and stretched his cheek

"Wow! I've heard that they are really rare!"

"Mel ate one too" he pointed out, which I nodded to "yep the Sokudo Sokudo no mi, a speed fruit"

Coby's jaw dropped "But, but your feet are in the water! Don't you get weak?"

Luffy laughed "Mel's a Mystery user"

"Yeah, I never figured out why, but I still sink, just don't get weak" I shrugged, never thought much about it.

"You're weird…" Coby whispered

"Hey!" I punched his head

Luffy laughed, clutching his stomach while Coby groaned.

We sailed in and I tied up the ship as we landed "Hey, the town's in view" I pointed, past the large but nearly empty port some town buildings could be seen and a large blue one stood tall behind everything, no doubt it was the Marine base. And considering the size of it this island was a popular supply stop.

"Yahoo! Roronoa Zoro here we come!"

"Melody! Let's get some food!" Luffy smiled, I could tell he was holding himself back from just racing into the town.

"Sounds good"

Coby sighed "didn't you just eat?" he gestured to the empty bag of apples that we had split only a half hour ago.

"It's always time to eat" I smirked.

So we strolled down the busy main street looking for a pub or restaurant. Luffy was walking with his hands behind his head whistling a tune "So Coby. What do you know about this island?" he asked before jumping from stall to stall looking at everything that was being sold.

"Not much, its marine base is run by a man known as Axe-Hand Morgan-"

Suddenly the people in the streets and behind the stands all jumped in fright and looked around wildly, a baby even started crying.

"I guess its taboo to say is name…" Coby said quietly "I wonder why…"

Luffy laughed "weird people" but I knew he was looking around carefully.

The townspeople went back to normal but now ignoring the three of us.

"Come on, let's eat in here" I pointed out a small bar just across the street.

"Great!" Luffy grinned.

With food in our bellies and the bartender paid Coby was sitting quietly in his chair "I guess this is where we split up"

"I hope you become a great Marine Coby" Luffy smiled.

"And you a pirate" Coby sniffled "even though I might have to catch you someday"

"You'll have to try your hardest" Laughed Luffy "I'm strong"

"So you said that Zoro's being held at the Marine Base?" I asked

"That's what a heard anyway"

Luffy stood, "We might as well walk you over there"

I stretched my arms into the air "let's go take a look"

"Please be careful" the barmaid spoke up as we were about to leave "That man…you don't know what he's capable of"

"We'll be fine" grinned Luffy "thanks anyway"

She nodded, not believing us and we walked into the street, it was still pretty early into the day and the market was busy.

The closer we got to the base we noticed just how huge it was. One large blue tower like building and smaller white buildings that looked like barracks.

A large wall surrounded the entire complex with only one entrance.

"Let's look over the top" Luffy jumped up and peered over. "Hey, is that him?"

I jumped up and peaked over beside Luffy and indeed there was a man tied to a low cross

"Impossible Luffy, they probably have Roronoa in a deep dungeon cell" Coby scoffed as he too scaled the stone wall. The poor boy took one look at the bandana wearing man and whimpered before falling back onto his butt. "B-b-bandana…. Green hair! …Haramaki!" he shook "it's really him!"

I looked back and noticed the swordsmen was looking at us.

"Hey kid!" his voice carried over the grounds "come over here and untie me. I'll give you a big bounty, I'm a man of my word."

Coby began to freak out, while Luffy watched the man "He's smiling…"

"Don't do it Luffy-san" Coby begged

I chuckled "It's not like he would be able to kill us"

Coby just gasped at me, not believing it.

Luffy was about to hop over when a wooden ladder followed by a little girl appeared next to us.

"Shush" she put a finger to her lips and slipped down into the base.

"What is she doing?"

The little girl made her way quickly to the bound pirate hunter and offered him something from her hands.

There was some muted conversation between them, from what I could tell he was telling her to fuck off.

"Look!" Coby turned to the entrance of the base. A blond pompous boy was walking across the grounds, flanked by marine soldiers.

"Just what do you think you are doing?!" The blond was loud, shrill and wearing some fine jewellery and clothes.

The girl was yelling at him now as he snatched the package in her hands, unwrapped it looked like two rice balls. We watched as the marine boy took a large bite. Obviously they were for Zoro. He sputtered, choked, and spit the rice into the dirt.

"That's disgustingly sweet!"

"I used sugar… because I like sweet things" The girl said, sticking up for her cooking.

"You're supposed to use salt, you stupid child! These are uneatable!" he threw the rest into the dirt and stomped on them. "Throw her over the wall!"

Luffy and I tensed when Coby gasped quietly.

"B-but sir…" one of the soldiers tried to speak up.

"I'm the captain's son!" the blond stamped his feet "do as I say or I'll tell my father!"

"Y-yes sir"

Zoro watched quietly and I saw the girl had tears in her eyes as the marine picked her up around the waist and chucked her over the wall in our direction"

"Got her" Luffy called and jumped up, caught her and took the fall.

"Are you ok?" Asked Coby as he slid back onto the ground. I took one last look at the arguing Marine boy, Zoro was nearly growling at him.

I slid down, the girl was wiping away her tears.

"Mel, take her home, I'm gonna have a chat with Roronoa"

"Ok, come on kid" I took her hand and started walking back into town

"Wait up Melody-san" Coby caught up "Are you sure Luffy-san will be alright?"

"He's stronger than you think Coby, besides Zoro's tied up"

Rika, the little girl actually lived above the bar her mum runs, which happened to be the same place we ate at earlier.

"Zoro's not a bad man" Rika said, the three of us sat outside the bar. "It's my fault he's in jail. Helmepo, Captain Morgan's son terrorizes everyone with his pet wolfs. They attacked me, but Zoro stopped them… and he got arrested"

"So he's actually a good guy" Luffy walked up, having caught our conversation.

"It makes sense I guess" said Coby "Zoro's really quite scary but he usually only goes after people with bounties."

"Oh, kid" Luffy bent down to Rika's height "Zoro are all your food up, he seemed really hungry…"

"Really? All of it!" she smiled

"Yep, all of it. Said it was delicious!"

"I'm so glad!"

"Rika come on in, I need some help getting the dinner prep ready" her mother came out of the bar "Thank you for looking after her: she bowed to us.

I smiled warmly

"Bye" Rika waved and went inside.

"So, what now?"

Luffy shrugged "I'm going to have to convince him to join us"

"Did he say no?" Asked Coby

Luffy grinned "yea"

"So why are you happy?"

Luffy just laughed.

Down the road the townspeople were getting to their knees, the blond pompous from the base was headed our way. The closer he got the more I noticed how much his hair looked like a coconut.

"hahaha, bow lower peasants or I'll tell my father!"

The only thing this reminded me of was back in the Goa Kingdom. Even the Marines that surrounded him looked uneasy and nervous.

"Do you want to join the Pirate hunter at the execution platform?!" he laughed again.

I noticed that Luffy's fists clenched, and the idiot was only getting closer.

"He'll be killed in three days! I'm so excited"

"Hey! What about your deal with him?" Luffy stepped out in front of him

The blond sneered "I don't know where you heard about that, but did you really think I would follow through with a deal with a criminal?"

Luffy grabbed his blue silk shirt and soundly punch him across the face and shoved him into the dirt.

Coby, the townspeople and the marine men all gasped and whispers broke out.

"Luffy, are you trying to fight every Marine here?" Coby jumped in front of him, blocking his path if he wanted another go with the coconut head.

"Scum is scum" Luffy said calmly "no matter who his father is"

The Marines rushed to the fallen boy's side, he was sniffling and blood was dripping from his broken nose "y-you actually hit me! No one hits me!" the marines lifted him up "I'm Captain Morgan's son! I'm telling Daddy on you!"

"Fight me like a man"

"You're a dead man! Daddy will have you begging!" The threats were nothing, yelled as he ran with his tail between his legs.

Almost immediately all the people in the streets disappeared into their homes.

Coby was freaking out "they're never going to leave you alone! Captain Morgan has all the Marines behind him!"

"We're pirates Coby" I sighed "of course the Marines are our enemies."

"Let's go talk to Zoro again" Luffy secured his hat and started down the street.

Coby sighed and tossed his hands in the air but followed Luffy and I anyway.

Luffy pulled me up onto the wall and together we jumped down. Zoro watched as we walked up

"Yo" Luffy grinned

"You again, I told you I'm not becoming a pirate!" Zoro growled

"If I untied you will you join me?"

"Are you deaf?! I have other things I need to do"

Luffy huffed "I don't care, you are going to join me!" and crossed his arms.

"Just accept it, Luffy won't take no for an answer" I crossed my arms and smiled.

"And who are you? Part of his crew"

"Yep" I grinned.

"Hey" Luffy clapped his hands "you're a swordsmen right?"

Zoro got confused "well yeah, but that stupid kid took them!"

"They're your treasure?" asked Luffy

"Yes" Zoro said somewhat reluctantly. And Luffy grinned "great! I'll go get them! But if you want me to return them to you, you'll have to join me!"

"That's dirty!" Zoro spat

Luffy grinned at me "Stay here, I'll be right back"

"Oi! Wait!" but Luffy had already run to the entrance and ripped the door open. "Is he just running in like that? What an idiot"

"Luffy's stronger than he looks" I supplied and took a seat beside the swordsmen.

"Still an idiot"

"At times" I laughed.

I looked down, "well aren't you going to untie me?"

I smirked "do you want me too?"

"Melody-san!" Coby came running from the wall, the poor boy had hesitated at the wall, not wanting to be on the Marine's bad side

"Coby, you'll be killed if the Marines find you here" seriously, this boy wanted to be a marine but was going against them.

"I can't stand these kinds of Marines! I'm gonna become a real Marine! For justice and saving people! Luffy puts his life on the line to become Pirate King, I'll do the same for my dream!" Coby reached for the ropes and I heard a gunshot.

Time slowed as I stood and took a look around, a group of marines were running out of the entrance, one held their rifle up smoke was just beginning to come out of the barrel. The bullet was about halfway to Coby, from what I could tell it was aimed for his shoulder that was nice of the marine I mused. With a little push I shifted its target, nice and safely out of the way. I put myself in between the two guys and the marines as time went back to normal speed.

"Ahh!"

I looked back, Coby had somehow turned and got grazed by the bullet. "Damn it Coby, I moved that for you and you still got hit"

"Wha-" Zoro was stunned.

"I'm gonna die!" Coby cried.

I sighed "it was just a graze Coby, you'll be fine" I turned back to the line of Marines "now boys, it's not nice to shoot first"

"How did you…."

Coby got to his feet, holding his arm "I'll free you Zoro"

"Idiot, leave me here as long as I keep my end of the deal I'll be fine"

"No you're not, they're gonna kill you in three days!"

"That's true" I supplied "The Coconut head was bragging about it in town earlier"

"Luffy punched him too" Coby huffed "the three of you will never be able to leave this island alone. I'm not forcing you to be a pirate but please help Luffy-san!"

"Coby I'm sure we'll be fine alone, but I have no plans to leave Roronoa, Luffy wants you on the crew"

"That's enough!" the line of Marines raised their guns "the three of you have gone against the Captain, you'll die here!"

I just sighed. Poor Coby was crying and Roronoa looked stressed.

From behind the line a large man entered the grounds, a flowing marine cape around his shoulders. He had a metal jaw and an axe for a hand. "Surround the base!" he ordered "No one is going to escape!"

"I guess you're the Captain everyone's scared of" I crossed my arms.

"Are the four of you trying to start a mutiny?" he hefted his Axe hand onto his shoulder, the thing looked way too heavy or even practical

"Roronoa Zoro, I've heard of you. But make no mistake my strength is greater than yours. Ready!"

Behind me I could tell that both Zoro and Coby were panicking. There were a lot of guns pointing at us, that's for sure.

"Fire!"

I began to move and block them but Luffy came flying out of one of the high windows, he landed right in front of the three of us and blocked the bullets.

"Luffy-San!"

"You!"

Zoro and Coby screamed. His rubber skin stretched back and I moved out of the way of one path, Coby and Zoro were staring wide eyed at them.

"It's no use!" Luffy laughed as it bounced back, sending the bullets flying in different directions. "Ha Ha Ha Ha!"

The group of Marine screamed in fright, and Morgan's eyes were the size of dinner plates.

Coby promptly fell onto his back, breathing heavily and in shock.

"Are you even human!" demanded Zoro

"I'm the one who will be the Pirate King" Luffy answered, not really the right kind of answer but it worked. And just the way Luffy declares his dream, it sends a shiver down my spine. "I found three swords, I wasn't sure which one is your treasure so I brought all of them" he held out the three weapons.

Zoro smirked "I use all three"

"If you fight with me here today it'll make you an outlaw" stated Luffy as he took a look at the many Marines that had gathered in front of us. "Or many you want to die here…" he looked back, smirking.

Zoro sighed, and looked back towards the group of marines ready to fight "Forget it. I'm deemed a criminal anyway. I'll join you and become a pirate" he returned the smirk.

"YES!" grinned Luffy "our second crew member!"

"ok, ok now hurry up and get these ropes off me!"

Luffy started tugging and pouted "these are really tight…"

"Here, Luffy let me help" the two of us argued over the knots. While Zoro was freaking out.

"You're so noisy, I can't concentrate" Luffy pouted

"We don't have time for you to take your time!"

"Oh, I got one" I grinned, behind us Coby was yelling "Look out!"

"Hand me my swords idiots!" screamed Zoro, one arm now free. Luffy and I shoved the three weapons into his hand just as marines rained down on us. Zoro was quite fast as he slit the rest of his bounds and got in-between the marine's swords and Luffy and myself. With a sword in each hand and one held between his teeth, surprisingly. The three blocked all of the Marine's.

"That's so cool" laughed Luffy. I nodded "nice!"

"Move, and I'll kill all of you" threated Zoro, the poor marines were shaking. Then his shaded eyes turned to Luffy "I already told you I'll become a pirate with you. Either way… I'll be an outlaw. But it's ok, I still have my own goals!"

Luffy grinned.

"I'm going to become the World's Greatest Swordsmen, if you get in my way I'll cut you up"

"Good, I won't accept anything less than your best, you're part of the future Pirate King's crew"

"Well said" Zoro said, grinning. The sword between his teeth I noticed didn't have any impact with his speech, he must have practiced a lot.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" The large Captain yelled. And more Marines began to charge forward.

"Hey Zoro, duck" Luffy pulled back his leg "gomu gomu no Whip!" Zoro ducked as the stretched leg wiped around, knocking all of the Marine's back, some of them knocked unconscious.

"Nice Luffy!" Coby cheered.

"What exactly are you…"

"I'm a rubber man" Grinned Luffy.

Zoro stood tall and stretched out his back, I could hear it crack probably from being stuck in the slouch position for days. Luffy brushed off some dirt that had gathered on his shorts and I grinned. The Marines were shaking in their boots.

"We can't kill these people!"

"We can't even defeat Zoro…."

Captain Morgan started advancing towards us, "those of you that have just said that, or even thought that… take your gun and kill yourself!" he stared down his soldiers "I don't need weaklings. That's an order!"

Surprisingly many of them lifted their guns to their heads, their entire bodies were shaking.

Luffy took off running at the Marine "I'm your worst enemy! I dare you to try and execute me"

"Defeat them Luffy-san!" Cheered Coby. I sat my hands on my hips as the Captain Morgan discarded his Marine Cape, leaving him in a blue vest and camo pants.

"People like you have no right to oppose me!" The large man charged, swinging his Axe widely.

Luffy easily jumped up, and dodged the attack.

"So… are the other marines not gonna fight?" I asked, everyone was just watching the big guy get tossed around by Luffy's attacks. I sighed, guess I wasn't going to get any action today.

"Stop!" came a voice to the side of me "I said stop!" the blond coconut head had come up beside me, I hadn't bothered to notice him. A pistol was in his hand, aimed at my head and I rolled my eyes.

Luffy had let up on the Captain and turned to the two of us, not an emotion showing on his face.

"Give up now and I won't blow her brains out!" the pompous brat yelled shrilly.

Luffy watched, as Coby came in between the two of us "shoot me, I won't let you hurt anyone else. Don't listen to him Luffy-san! I'm not afraid to die!" the boy declared

"Ok, I know" he grinned "you're stupid you know blondie" Luffy pulled back his arm

"You idiot! Don't move! I'm gonna shoot!" Helmeppo screamed, his knees were buckling.

"Pistol!" Luffy sent the punch flying, and behind him Morgan took his chance to attack. But Zoro had picked up on it and attacked

"Leave it to me, Captain" he smirked.

The Great Captain Morgan fell, hard.

Coby fell to his knees as the other Marines finally registered that the two pains in their asses were out cold.

"If you still wanna arrest us, come get us" I smirked. Zoro had put away his swords but didn't look any less menacing and Luffy was just grinning.

There was a silent moment before the Marines all erupted into cheers! "We're free!"

"Long live the Marines!"

"Yes!"

"I'm so glad!"

I moved to lean on Luffy's shoulder, "why are they celebrating….?" He asked.

"Everyone hated him I guess" I shrugged.

"Great…."

"Oi! Zoro!" Luffy freaked, the green haired swordsmen collapsed into the dirt.

"Are you ok! Zoro!"

I leaned down and heard a large grumble "when was the last time he ate?"

"Um… nine days I think" said Coby.

I rolled my eyes "this guy just fought with no energy…"

"Oh, so he's just hungry?" Luffy cocked his head to the side and poked the unconscious man.

"Come on" I pick up one of his arms, Luffy took the other. With a last look at the Celebrating Marines he headed into town, maybe Rika's mother will feed us for free. My savings weren't going to last between Luffy, myself and a starving Swordsman.

We all sat around a table in the bar, Rika's mother brought dish and dish of delicious food.

"Ah! I thought I was going to die" cried Zoro as he sat back with a full stomach.

"You'd never have lasted a month" laughed Luffy as he munched on a sandwich.

"What did you say!" argued Zoro "what's with you any way! You ate more than me!"

The two continued bickering and I turned to Rika's mother "Thank you ma'am, I know we've eaten a lot…"

"Me too…" Coby said sheepishly

"No worries!" she smiled "you saved our town, it's the least I can do"

I leaned back in my chair, and Zoro folded his arms on the table. "So" he asked "What's the plan?"

"The Grand Line" Grinned Luffy "That's where we're headed!"

Coby began sputtering "What! You're saying crazy things again! Just the three of you can't just enter the Grand Line like that!" he pounded the table "The world's strongest Pirates gather there!"

"It's not that crazy from what I remember..." I mused "though this sea is a lot weaker…"

"You're from there Melody-san?!" cried the poor kid

"I was born on the Grand Line, but I've lived in this sea since I was 7, so I don't remember a lot of it."

"We're going after the One Piece" grinned Zoro "that's where it is"

Coby smacked his head onto the tabled "you guys are crazy!"

"It's not like you're coming with us"

"E-even though I'm not! I will still worry!" he stood suddenly "Luffy-san, Melody-san even though we only met the other day, we're friends aren't we…."

"Of course" said Luffy like Coby was stupid "even though we have to part, we'll always be friends"

"You should be worrying about yourself" said Zoro "even though you were only a chore boy, you're still a small time pirate. If you're serious about becoming a Marine don't underestimate their ability to gather information."

"I know, I'll be careful!" he declared.

I stood "this should help out a bit" and borrowed a notepad from the bar top, scribbled out a note and handed it to Coby "this seems like a busy port, if a Marine by the name of Garp ever comes by, give him this" I winked "he'll be sure to you help you out"

Coby nodded, and held the note carefully. "I can't believe you have connections in the Marines Melody-san…"

"Well… yeah I guess you could call it that" I smirked, off to the side Luffy paled as he realized just who I was talking about.

"She's crazy" I heard him mumble to Zoro "Coby wouldn't last a day with that guy…" the poor confused Zoro didn't bother to ask.

I laughed "become a great Marine Coby, maybe you'll try and catch us one day."

"I'll try my hardest, don't underestimate me anymore!" The pink haired boy declared.

Luffy grinned "good"

"Excuse me!" a knock came at the bar door, I peered out the windows and saw what looked like all the marines in the base waiting outside. One man walked in "we are wondering if the rumors are true, are you really pirates?" it seemed like he was really hoping it wasn't true.

Luffy stood from the table "yes, the three of us are" he grinned.

The marine nervously fiddled with his hat "Even though you are pirates… you saved our town, for that we are grateful. But" he stood tall, gathering composure "because you are pirates we cannot allow you to stay any longer. Please leave immediately. The events here will be reported to headquarters."

Outside the door a ruckus could be heard from the townspeople who were listening in.

"Come on then, thank you for the food ma'am" Luffy nodded to the barkeep who smiled. Zoro stood and the three of us headed to the door.

"Luffy…"

We walked straight by Coby, and were nearly out the door when the Marine addressed the boy "aren't you with them?"

"N-no I'm not"

The marine turned, "Please hold on… Is he telling the truth?" We stopped in the middle of the road, the sun was high reflecting harshly, Luffy turned around grinning stupidly "… I know what he used to do" he pointed at Coby "I can't remember where but there was this huge lady I think her name was Albida –"

"Shut up!" Coby ran forward and decked Luffy across the face, shutting him up from spilling his secret.

Zoro huffed while I watched carefully, Luffy sprung back and returned the punch within a heartbeat and a brawl broke out. I sighed, Luffy was getting a little crazy.

"Stop it! I won't allow any more fights!" the Marine yelled, Zoro grabbed the back of Luffy's shirt "Oi, Oi" poor Coby was huffing on the ground his newly spilt lip was dribbling blood down his chin.

"I know he isn't your friend! Please leave this town immediately!"

Luffy smiled "ok" we walked through the crowd that had gathered, marines and townsfolk everyone was silent as we made our way back towards the docks.

Our small ship was waiting nicely. I hopped in and doubled checked our supplies, looked like someone gave us some barrels of water.

"Nice act" commented Zoro as he untied the rope.

Luffy grinned "Coby's going to be great, and strong" he stood by the mast and unfurled the sail.

Zoro shoved off the dock, and I ducked as the sail came flying towards me "hey! Be careful!"

"Oops"

"Asshole" I muttered

"What did you say...?"

"Luffy! Melody! Zoro!" the building fight between Zoro and I came to a halt as Coby came running up the dock "Thank you very much!" he saluted "I'll never forget you!"

"A marine saluting a pirate" chuckled Zoro "never seen that before"

"We'll meet again Coby!" laughed Luffy, the two of us waved ecstatically and the marines also marched up to join the boy in saluting.  
"We're off! To the Grand Line" cheered Luffy as we sailed farther and farther from the island, soon it was just a spot in the distance.

"Shouldn't we get a more crew members and an actual ship to sail in" I reasoned, this tiny sail boat wasn't going to last in that sea, or even the trip over.

"Right!" laughed Luffy "we're going to need a cook, and a sharp shooter and a musician"

"And a navigator" I chuckled

"Right then! We're off to find a proper ship!" Luffy threw his hands into the air.

"Aye!" Luffy and I cheered while Zoro shook his head.

We all got comfortable, Luffy took up the front seat, Zoro plopped down at the back and I sat under the sail, rope in hand to direct us. Though I don't know where exactly we had to go next.


	3. Chapter 3: Gathering More Crew Members

**Hello, sorry this is getting up a bit late I ended up having to work longer than I thought and just got home. But some good news today! I passed my certification for my career choice. I've been stressing about this for weeks if I didn't pass I'd have to retake it and pay a penalty fee, without it I wouldn't be able to do my college co-op placement and pass the program. But it's over! Enough rambling and I hope you enjoy the chapter! Reviews are welcome as always!**

Blessed by the Sea

Chapter 3: Gathering More Crew Members

"I don't know how the two of you expected to get anywhere with no navigational skills…." Zoro commented. It had been a few days since he joined up, the three of us where lying about the boat, just drifting across the water.

"I don't know a thing!" laughed Luffy "just let the wind take us"

"I'm the only one who knows a little bit about sailing, but navigating with a map… not much…." I laughed "we're in no hurry anyway this is an adventure!" I sat back against the wood of the mast, closed my eyes and soaked up some of the midday sun. I could never forget the feeling of being on the sea like this.

Luffy began to hum, the tune was some sort of sea shanty that Shanks had taught him, though we had forgotten the words years ago. Zoro raised an eyebrow but didn't seem to know it and Luffy grinned as I joined in, singing wasn't a talent but I could hold a note. "We're going to need a musician soon!" Luffy chirped

I stopped humming and sighed "We'll starve to death without a cook Luffy…"

"Oh, right…." He grabbed his chin "where can we find a good cook…? Oh hey!" he yelled suddenly "Look at that huge bird!" Up in the clouds was a huge multicolored bird. It was huge from our distance, it must have been three times the size of the ship!

"Food!" Luffy cheered, and before I could stop him the rubber teen shot up into the air after it.

"You idiot!" Zoro yelled and stood, squinting his eyes against the sun. "He's stuck!"

Indeed all I could see was his body mixed up with the bird and he wasn't coming back down.

"HELP!" we could hear him yelling "I'M STUCK! Let me go you stupid bird!"

"Let go of him!" I yelled up, but the bird continued flying on. Zoro threw himself into rowing "keep him in sight!" he yelled

"There's an island! It's headed that way!" I kept Zoro in the right direction and the bird was just a dot in the sky in a matter of minutes. The wind whipped through my hair as Zoro rowed as fast as he could, I dug into my pouch and pulled out a telescope, I snatched it off a marine back in shell town during the scuffle. I peered through just in time to see a red dot drop from the bird and fall onto the island, what looked like a town was located not far from the docks. "He's landed, looks like there's a town!"

Zoro slowed down, chest heaving "He's fine… goddamn, he's gonna give me a heart attack" Zoro huffed.

I laughed "you'll get used to it"

We docked at the island about 20 minutes after Luffy was seen falling from the bird. It was a large dock, definitely bigger than shell town but the place was deserted, and the town from what could be seen was mostly destroyed. Full rows of houses looked like they've been bowled down. Debris littered the streets, and there were no people in sight.

"So" Zoro looked around "where do you think he's wondered off too?"

I sighed "might as well just walk around, I don't think there's going to be anyone around that might have seen him" I kicked a piece of rubble and started off down the road, Zoro kept a hand on his sword hilt as we walked. This place was too quiet. I wonder what could have happened.

We wondered around for a few minutes, until Zoro suddenly veered to the right.

"Where are you going…?"

"Straight"

I blinked "straight is this way" I pointed down the street, buildings were crumbling on either side of us. He was about to just walk through a destroyed house.

"Oh, right. I knew that"

I watched him continue the way we were going and grinned. "Zoro… do you have a bad sense of direction…"

"No I don't, I know north is front, left is south and right is east!" he stated it so bluntly I stopped.

"Zoro… how did you ever move around!" I broke into laughter "North, south, east and west are fixed points due to the red line! Left and right are just what's beside your body!"

"I know that" he snapped back "now shut up and just find Luffy!" From my angle I could see a faint blush on his cheeks. I laughed again. "You're funny!"

As we got deeper into the town we began to hear a large commotion, yelling and cheering and some sort of squeaking noise... Zoro and I stopped to take cover behind a half standing building and peered our heads out to see a large group of men, partying in a square. A large black skull and cross bones flag was hung from a building, that looked like the town hall. The skull had a large red nose and was decorated in makeup that made it look like a clown. Pirates.

"Is that a lion….?" I looked down from the flag and off to the side there was indeed a large white lion, it was sleeping. "What sort of pirates own a lion…." I wondered and looked around at the rest of the group, everyone seemed to be focused on a ginger haired girl. She was standing beside a large cannon and in front of that cannon was a steel cage with a bound Luffy sitting inside. The teen was grinning at the girl.

"What has that idiot gotten himself into" Zoro sighed "Let's go"

We stepped out from behind our hiding place and I noticed a man who must be the captain, the flag had the same large clown nose as the one on his face. Wild blue hair was sticking out in different directions from under his white and red Captain's hat and was yelling loud enough to be a fool. The man really did seem like a clown. The group didn't notice us as we walked up so I yelled "Oi! Luffy what have you gotten into this time?"

I placed my hands on my hips, the ginger haired girl had a pack of matches loosely in her hand looked up in shock.

I scowled, these idiots were about to blow up my idiot.

My Captain in question whipped his head around and grinned "Mel! I found another crewmate!" even with his hands tied behind his back and sitting squished in a small cage he was hyper and his large smile just glowed in excitement. I couldn't help but loose the scowl and grin back.

"And who might that be. Not the clown I hope…" I didn't even glance at the fool who yelled "OI!" and stomped his feet like a child.

"This is Nami. She's a navigator!" he pointed his head towards the red head nodding excitedly.

I smiled "nice to meet you" Zoro nodded to her.

"I'm not joining you!" Nami yelled, by her tone I could tell Luffy had asked her a bunch of times already.

"Don't you ignore me!" the clown cut in. With a quick glance he stood and yelled "Kill them!" The men all scattered and stumbled, getting their weapons in hand.

"Time to go" Snapped Zoro, he ran to the cannon and flipped it using all of his strength to face the oncoming pirates while I grabbed the matches from Nami's hand and lit it up. "Bye-bye" I wiggled my fingers

"Oh no you don't!" out the corner of my eye a knife came whizzing through the air and it was heading straight for Luffy. I moved to grab it out of the air but one look from Luffy had me stop and instead turned to the shocked ginger. I swept Nami off her feet holding her in a bridal carry, the girl was much too light so I made a mental note to ask about it later. She squirmed and squeaked but I held firm and looked back at Luffy who had caught the knife between his teeth and snapped the blade into pieces. "Buzz off big nose"

Then the cannon went off and it literally tore through the group of pirates and many of the buildings behind it.

"Zoro! Let's get out of here!"

"Aye" the swordsman pulled out his white hilted sword and tried to cut up the steel cage but it just wasn't working. "Hold on" he grunted and hefted Luffy, cage and all onto his back "Let's go"

The weight nearly bent him in half but he started jogging at a good pace. Nami gave a squeal and demanded to be put down when I started a brisk but slow to me pace, staying just ahead of the green haired swordsmen and heading further into the town.

"Who the hell are you?" Nami yelled

"Oh sorry" I grinned "I'm Melody"

"Can you let me down..." she grumbled

"Nope"

"Zoro!" I turned my head to look back at the boys, Luffy was screaming about something.

Blood was running down Zoro and splattering onto the ground, a shiny blade was sticking out of his side. "Zoro what the hell happened to you?" we had left the plaza behind so how did he get stabbed?

"I'm fine" he growled and adjusted the cage on his back, which only aggravated the wound and made it squirt more blood. It had thoroughly stained the bottom of his white shirt and all down one side of his pants.

"Keep moving." he grunted.

We turned down a side street, and stopped deeming this far enough from the plaza and the clown pirates. I placed Nami back on her feet, I was surprised she didn't immediately flee. The ginger only crossed her arms and watched Zoro huff and drop the cage. "You are nuts" she huffed and grimaced when he just yanked the knife out and collapsed onto the ground as gracefully as he could "this is nothing a nap won't fix"

He tried to close his eyes but I pulled up his soaked shirt "I wouldn't think so, this is still pretty deep."

Luffy was pouting in the cage, unable to do anything.

"I don't think it hit anything important…" I shrugged, it was in the side, clear through one side, and it was still sluggishly bleeding. "Nami can you find some booze?" I looked up at her, it wasn't a test per say.

She looked over my shoulder and made another grimace at the blood "I'll be right back"

"Booze sounds good" Zoro grinned.

I smacked him up the head. "You're lucky you don't need stiches, cause I can't sew for shit"

"Just some sleep and I'll be fine" he mumbled, eyes closed and slipped into a nap.

I shrugged, it's gonna be a rude awakening when I dump the alcohol on the wound. Luffy laughed "He'll be fine" I turned to the raven haired boy and smiled "yeah"

I spun around, sitting on the gravel ground in front of the cage. "Spin around I'll get those ropes off. But we're gonna need to find a key or something big to get you outta here"

He laughed again, but did as I said and spun around. The ropes dropped easily, and I cleared them from the cage just as Nami arrived, booze and a first aid kid in hand.

"I'm back, did he die?" she eyed the still swordsman.

"Fell asleep." I took the supplies from her "thanks"

I dumped half the small rum bottle on Zoro but he didn't even move a muscle or twitch. I hummed "what a deep sleeper"

"Lucky" Nami said quietly. I don't think she noticed that I heard her. I worked quickly and slapped a bandage on both sides of the wound. With that done I took up a seat, leaning against the cage and looked up at Nami.

"Look, thanks for earlier but I'm off." She dug into her jean pocket and tossed a metal key, which I snatched out of the air and held between two fingers.

"But you gotta join my crew!"

The teen grimaced, "look I got things to do! I can't just travel the waters! And as a pirate no less! No thanks!" she huffed and spun on her heel "I hate pirates"

"Nami" Luffy pouted. In one motion I unlocked the cage and Luffy rocketed to the ginger "Please!" he grinned and wined like a child while jumping around her.

"No" she started to walk away but Luffy just kept circling her as she walked.

I hung back, mostly to watch after the sleeping swordsman. But the two didn't get far when a large crash vibrated through the silent town. In a blink of an eye I pushed Zoro underneath a porch and went to Luffy's side. The two of them were looking down a street, a single building was getting demolished. The tail of the white lion belonging to the pirate crew was flicking in and out of the rubble.

"Come on Richie" a loud voice laughed and a man wearing white fur and had ears on his head stepped out of the rubble, the lion followed. It was munching on something that I hoped wasn't a person.

"Guess you won't have to worry about this anymore" the man laughed and tossed a bit of rubble to the side.

"Luffy" I got his attention, and pointed out a man that was laying on the cobbled road across from the crumbling building, and it looked like a small ball of fluff was held in his arms.

"You've taken this town, you've taken our safety, now…" the man was crying

The pirate laughed "now, I'll take your life. Richie!" the Lion lunged.

"Mel"

"Hai"

I raced down the street, and could tell now the cowering man had a small dog in his arms. Another look at the destroyed building I noticed a small sign, a pet store. The dog's home? I arrived at the side of the lion and swiftly did a back flip up, my foot hooking the lion in the side. Slowly the fur took the hit and I took another look at the crying man before fully stopping and watched as time caught up and the lion went flying into a far building, adding more destruction to the town.

A single heartbeat of silence as Luffy and Nami caught up and the fur wearing pirate stood shocked, mouth hanging open.

"Are you alright?" I quietly asked the man who was about to be killed, to his eyes it properly looked like I just teleported in. He nodded shakily and got to his feet. I got a good look at the small white dog, he was breathing thankfully but a few claw marks were bleeding sluggishly.

"Who are you?"

"Just some people passing through" I smiled. Finally the pirate's mind caught up with what had just happened and screamed bloody murder. "You just killed my Richie!"

I scoffed "you were about to kill this cute little doggy"

"I'll kill you!" the idiot rushed at me but Luffy was close and gave him a sound punch, connecting and making his nose crunch. The momentum sent him flying, right into the destroyed building that housed his lion.

"I-I thank you" The old man bowed as much as he could with the wounded dog in his arms. "I am Boodle, the Mayor"

"Where are all the citizens?" asked Nami

"Hiding, when the pirates invaded it was terrifying. We couldn't fight against that cannon of his, so we retreated"

Nami glowered "damn pirates"

The mayor turned back to the destroyed house "this store…" the small dog in his arms wined, having woken up.

"Was this your home?" asked Luffy as he gave the little thing a pat on the head.

"He belonged to a good friend of mine that used to run this store, unfortunately he passed away, but this little guy wouldn't leave, even when the pirates attacked. I've been sneaking back here to make sure he was alright."

Luffy marched into the mess, a determined glint in his eyes.

"I'm sorry I didn't get here sooner" I apologized. The Dog wined again but licked my fingers.

"Thank you, for showing up at all" the mayor sighed. "This town… it was my dream. We built this up with our own two hands. When I was just a child we were merely a village."

Some rocks dislodged from the rubble, we all turned to see Luffy climb out, a small bag of feed in hand. "Sorry, this was all I could save"

The dog licked his fingers as well.

"Those bastards" cried the mayor. Suddenly I found myself with an arm full of fur and blood. "I'm going to give them a piece of my mind!"

"You'll get killed!" Nami tried to reason with the stubborn old man

"I thank you for your help but this is my town I will take it back!" the man didn't get two steps before Luffy chopped him in the head, the poor old man collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

"Dumbass" my captain muttered. "He's got people to protect" Luffy secured his straw hat and started marching back the way we came. The dog wined at the fallen figure but I kept him in my hands "don't worry your friend will be fine" I scratched him behind the ears "Luffy'll take care of this"

I followed in step behind the raven haired teen, his back straight and determined I couldn't help but smile. Nami it seemed was at a loss of words.

"Come on" I edged her forward with a smile "let's kick some ass"

Zoro was just waking up from his nap when we got back. I made quick work of cleaning what I could of the little dog's wounds and bound him up with the leftover first aid supplies.

"You all are crazy" Nami said suddenly. Zoro strapped his swords securely to his waist, he could tell there was a fight coming without having to ask.

"Then stay behind" the swordsmen snapped

Luffy ignored their squabble, fists clenched and unclenched. "People who trample on other's dreams are the worst. These guys are just itching for a fight." He grinned "so let's give them a good one."

The dog stayed behind, but I could tell he was rooting for us. Nami was hesitant and followed quite a bit behind us.

"Bleeding anymore Zoro?" I quipped

"All healed up, told you I just needed some sleep" the three of us marched back into the square, the pirates were there waiting for us. The lion and his tamer were there, wounds wrapped, I was surprised the lion was still alive and when he caught sight of me the cat cowered.

"So the kid, Pirate Hunter Zoro, a girl and the witch have come back. I hope's to beg for your life. Unfortunately I'm not that nice of a person" the captain clown laughed.

"That's our Captain Buggy!"

"The man who is going to be the Pirate King!" his crew cheered and japed at us.

Luffy stilled "so you think you're going to be the king?" he grinned "no way, that'll be me!"

The clown bustled and raved "Like a little brat like you can beat me!"

"Don't underestimate me! I'm gonna be King of the Pirates!" Luffy roared, hands on his hips.

"You're so annoying! You remind me of that red haired bastard, you've even got that similar hat!"

It turns out that the clown pirate used to travel with Shanks, Luffy's idol who gave him his now signature Straw Hats years ago and challenged him to the Grand Line.

This just spurred Luffy on, the more Buggy cursed Shanks the more Luffy just wanted to pound him. And his crew wasn't any help, yelling out japs and insults. Buggy moved first and charged Luffy head on, and that started the fight.

Zoro encountered another swordsmen, apparently one of Buggy's first mates. The other fur wearing one was out cold, the idiot tried to take me on again, and was too easy to slap him into a stone wall next to his beloved lion who passed out just from my grin.

I kept half an eye on Luffy's fight. Seemed like the idiot Buggy ate a devil fruit, and blamed eating it on Shanks. I'm not entirely sure what fruit it was but Buggy was able to slice his body parts apart like they were cut off and move them around with no problems. Nami had gone off at some point, I think investigating the pirate's treasure.

I was just clearing up the loud and annoying grunts, they were easy picking as I just zig-zagged through the crowd, making them punch each other or themselves. I was just finishing up when I heard Luffy scream "Boshi!

A quick glance over and Luffy was standing still, eyes darkened by his long bangs. Buggy was stomping on the yellow Straw Hat, laughing and jeering.

"Stop" Luffy's voice was cold.

"You want me to stop? Why don't you do it yourself? I'll shred this blasting thing once and for all" a knife held between his fingers was thrown, I moved quickly and swiped the hat up out from under his dirty boot, throwing the clown off balance in the process and went to Luffy's side. I brushed off what dirt I could but it looked like some of the straw had ripped while being stomped on.

"Sorry Luffy… I wasn't fast enough…" I said quietly and passed the hat over.

Luffy looked at it quietly and the glare he sent to Buggy should have turned him to stone.

"That's enough, Shanks is a good friend to me, and he gave me this hat. It's a symbol of my dream. I won't let you run over it any longer" he placed the hat on my head "I'll be right back."

I stepped back as Luffy got serious with his fight, Zoro had finished off and limped over to the side lines, some new cuts adorned his arms, and the older puncture wound was bleeding again.

"Just need more sleep" he said.

"Hai, Hai" I smirked.

Luffy was getting annoyed with the clown who wouldn't stay in one spot and in one piece. His hands were flying everywhere throwing knives, his top half also sending off handless punches that looked like they were doing nothing other than annoy my Capitan. While the lower half was planted squarely in spot. From behind the fight I saw the ginger hair of Nami sneak up and kick the Clown where the sun don't shine. He was knocked over and winded while Luffy grimaced and yelled at Nami saying it was a dirty trick.

Now buggy seemed to have half his attention on Nami, and the other On Luffy, half of his body too… But Nami was pretty quick on her feet and with a pair of rope. While Buggy was busy with Luffy she wrapped up the separate parts of his body that were scattered around in a net.

"That's enough!" Buggy yelled "Assemble!" the pirate Capitan tried to call all his body parts together to finish Luffy off but with Nami trapping most of them all that he connected to was a big of leg, his two feet, hands and head. Making him a demented appendage man.

Everyone burst into laughter as Buggy wailed and failed around.

"Hey Melody!" Nami motioned to her net of body parts, holding them down with only a hand.

"Fore!" I yelled and ran over, giving the bundle a swift kick. It flew off into the distance.

"Twenty points!" Zoro called.

I fist pumped that air. "Yeah!"

Luffy joined in with a Gomu-Gomu Bazooka that send the rest of Buggy off in the opposite direction.

Since it definitely went farther than my kick both Zoro and I called out a twenty-two.

Nami sighed, and shook her head in exasperation.

Luffy just grinned.

Soon after the town's people raced onto the scene, being led by the white dog. "Where are you pirates!" they chanted and yelled, makeshift weapons of pots, pans, and even some farming equipment in hand.

Almost immediately they tried to descend on us, until the old man mayor also showed up and calmed everyone down.

* * *

Zoro, Luffy and I were back at the docks as the townspeople wrapped their heads around their sudden freedom.

"Looks like the girl won't be joining us" said Zoro as he undid the ropes keeping the boat in place.

"No, Nami's coming" Luffy stated with a grin, he was standing in the boat. I smiled, the ginger had hung around a bit after the fight but disappeared into the building the pirates were using as a base, and that was close to an hour ago.

"She said she'd be back" Luffy turned to look back towards the town "look! There she is"

Behind me I heard Zoro sigh.

Nami stopped on the deck beside me, two large bags obviously filled with treasure of some sort were dropped on either side of her. "Nami!" Luffy cheered

She smiled at us and crossed her arms. "Look, I won't join your crew but I think we can be of some use to each other" I just smirked, this is only a first step to her joining permanently. "So let's travel together, at least for a little while."

"Yatta!" Luffy cheered "Another Nakama!"

Nami went to yell at him when I put a hand on her shoulder "just roll with it"

With the boat all packed up we shipped off. Luffy took up his stop at the front, and Zoro and I sat by the mast while Nami finished putting the boat on course. Wind filled the sails and the island was soon just a speck in the distance. The sun was high in the sky and the boat rocked slowly. My eyes drooped but I could see that Zoro had succumb to sleep and I decided that a nap would be good. The lapping of the waves finally pulled me under but not before I heard Nami start to yell at Luffy about her left behind treasure.

* * *

Four relatively peaceful days passed aboard the boat, other than the few arguments between Nami and Zoro and the many annoyed yells from Nami at Luffy. I thankfully had somewhat avoided confrontation with Nami. Though a good point on her was that she was able to fix up Luffy's hat, sewing together the ripped straw and now it looked as good as ever.

The Ginger kept us on course for the next island, good thing too since we were running low of supplies again, the four of us needed a good meal soon and the fact that we weren't going to be able to travel the Grand Line in this little boat.

Nami was sitting on the bench with a map in hand, Zoro was napping as usual and Luffy was just watching the ocean, for once quiet.

"We should see the next island in about an hour" said Nami, she packed up her maps and stretched "I'll be happy to get some real food." My stomach growled in agreement. Luffy turn from the sea, grin plastered across his face "we're gonna have an adventure!"

"We're going to have to get an actual ship, maybe someone on the island will be able to give us one" I looked around our boat. With the four of us it was crowded, only two people could sleep in the little cabin with the supplies, though Nami was the only one to use it so far. Luffy Zoro and I didn't mind sleeping among the benches under the stars. The weather's been great too.

"So Melody" Nami bent forward, hands holding her chin up and resting on her knees "I've worked out that you guys picked up Zoro from a Marine Base, but how did Luffy wrangle you into this adventure?"

I grinned "I've known Luffy for the last ten years. We grew up together"

"And he's been like this the whole time?"

"Yep" I laughed "ever since I met him he proclaimed his dream to be the Pirate King. It still makes my heart race whenever he yells it to the world" we looked towards the captain, laughing with Zoro about something and watching the horizon carefully.

"Well, you can't deny his dedication" sighed Nami, then she seemed to get a glint in her eye "So…you've known each other for a long time… is there anything going on between the two of you?"

It took me a second to realise what she was asking "oh, we'—"

"Land-Ho!" Luffy's yell cut me off. He was jumping up and down pointing out to an island. "Hurry up! Let's get there fast!" he turned around grinning. Distracted by Luffy, Nami and I didn't continue our conversation and instead got ready for landing, according to Nami it was a small island, and she wasn't sure if there was going to be a dock to land at. It was a long fifteen minute wait until we pulled the small boat onto a stretch of beach. I pulled off my shoes and jumped onto the sand, tugging the boat just a little bit more onto the beach. Nami and Zoro were looking around while Luffy was just jumping up and down in excitement.

"There's supposed to be a small village around here" said Nami

"Food!" Cheered Luffy "let's get some food!"

But when we were about to leave the beach a voice called out from behind some bushes "Pirates! You are not welcome here! This is your last warning! Leave now or face the wrath of my 10 thousand men!" Little stick men with paper plate heads popped up from the bushes around us.

"Cool! You really have 10 thousand men!?" Luffy cheered

I could tell whoever was behind the voice was grinning "of course because I am the great captain Usopp a brave warrior of the seas!"

"Liar" Nami said dryly "those are just sticks…"

"Ahh! She caught on to me!"

"A witch!"

"She must be a witch!"

Along with the captain Usopp's voice there were kids hiding with him. "Run away!" they screamed and we could see them dart down a path behind the bushes.

"E-even though you've seen though my trick I the great Captain Usopp will not let you raid this village!" The kid stood up, he had curly black hair being held back by a bandana. Spiny legs and arms he looked about our age and was wearing brown overalls. The most prominent thing about him was the long nose.

"We don't want to raid it…" said Luffy "we just want some food"

"Oh…."

There was a beat of awkward silence until Usopp erupted into laughter "oh, is that all. You're not Pirates at all!"

"No" I said as the four of us started to walk past him "we're pirates"

"What?!"

"shi shi shi you're funny" Laughed Luffy.

The poor teen was shaking in his boots the whole way to the only restaurant in the village. It was a quiet place, looked like they barely got any visitors, lots of hills as we walked I noticed a large mansion sitting on the edge of the village, maybe they would have a boat for us. As we sat and ate Usopp confirmed my thoughts that the mansion was the only place that would be able to give us a boat, but only a sick little girl lived there.

"We might as well forget getting a ship here then" sighed Nami. Luffy grinned either way "We're in no rush anyway, let's get some meat for our supplies!" he finished off his dish and leant back into the booth, Nami and Zoro across from us watched him "and maybe there's someone who'll join us…"

Usopp laughed "if you want a companion! Let me be the captain and I'll join!"

"No thanks" the four of us said, nearly all in-sync.

"Fine then" he turned up his nose "I've got to get going anyway, see you around!" and he quickly dashed out the door.

"What a strange kid" said Zoro

"Not as strange as Luffy" Nami scoffed and placed her elbows on the table as Luffy laughed.

"I think he's funny" I chimed in and I motioned to the server for some drinks.

Not long after the Curly haired teen left, the three kids who ditched him by the water barged in, the servers didn't seem too bothered, maybe they did this daily.

Zoro decided to play a prank on them, which led them to thinking we had eaten their captain. It didn't work out very well for Nami because they called her an old witch. Once they had calmed down though the three had some pretty good information about the village to share, like how Usopp practically lies every hour about something or other but it was all to cheer up the little sick girl stuck in the mansion.

"So he's actually a pretty great guy" Luffy hummed, I could already tell he was thinking of asking him to join us, he was pretty amusing and according to the kids a sharp shooter.

"It's all thanks to the captain that she's feeling better already!" one of the kids grinned.

"Well, that's it!" Luffy stood "We're going to the mansion to ask for a ship!"

"You can't just ask for one" Nami sighed

"It won't hurt to try…" I stood as well

"Let's go then" Zoro shoved Nami out of the booth, which cost him a lump on his head.

I laughed, once outside the kids ran off and the four of us started towards the large white mansion. Luffy whistled a song the whole way.


	4. Chapter 4: Catlike Pirates

So, unfortunately back in September I had to wipe my Macbook to take care of some problems. I had everything backed up onto an external hard drive and just continued to work from off of it. Then I was stupid and accidently reformatted the drive for an xbox. Don't ask me how I messed it up, I don't really understand how in the first place… so I lost everything.

All my photos, all my documents, story ideas and hundred upon hundreds of fan fiction plot bunnies, ideas and half completed stories. Obviously this killed my writing mood for quite a while, including with school starting up again I've been busy… So far I've managed to save not even a quarter of the stories, thanks to myself emailing a bunch back and forth with people and the cloud. But pictures and everything else is gone.

I've also recovered my plot and chapter ideas for Blessed by the Sea, thankfully!

So sorry about the wait and this long note I just wanted to let you all know that I am alive, wounded but alive.

So this chapter is not as long as I would like but enjoy!

 **Blessed by the Sea**

 **Chapter 4: Catlike Pirates**

Once out of the village we started walking up the large hill to the mansion. Large lush bushes surrounded the white house, and from what we could see, decorative pillars sat at the corners. As a whole the house stood out like a sore thumb in the small village.

"It's huge!" Luffy and I grinned. We had never seen such a large house this close up before. Even some of the nobles' houses back home were covered by fences and trees we couldn't see anything.

"Hello!" Luffy yelled and grabbed the huge gate and stuck his head through the bars with a small pop. "Is anyone home?!"

"Doesn't look like they are" said Nami as she crossed her arm. "I'm coming in!" Luffy grinned, ignoring her and slingshot himself over the fence

"Luffy!" The ginger growled with annoyance.

"Come on Nami" I grinned and easily scaled up, Zoro followed close behind "come on"

She grumbled but started climbing.

I took a moment at the top of the gate and looked over the property, it was pretty bare other than a tree poking up from the around the back. I helped Nami cover the top and we dropped down gracefully together.

"The door's locked" Luffy pouted, he walked back towards us. "Did you see anyone in the windows?" asked Zoro, he looked around lazily a hand resting on the hilt of his swords.

"Nope" Luffy's lip stuck out with an even heaver pout.

"It's probably not a good idea to try and break in either" I looked at Nami, who met the glance with a guilty shrug. I knew she was thinking about it.

Luffy turned towards the house "did you hear that?"

Everyone stopped and listened, soft laughter could be heard.

"Where is it coming from?"

We heard it again, louder this time. We followed it around to the back of the building. Sitting on the large tree was Usopp, from what we could tell he was in the middle of telling a story to a petite blonde haired girl. She was seated on the windowsill on the top story of the house. A cream shall wrapped around her shoulders, even though it was pretty warm out.

"The fish's poop was so large I thought it was an island, and I docked on it!"

The girl burst into laughter, holding her stomach "Usopp, you're so funny!"

"Of course I am! I'm the great Usopp! Warrior of the seas!"

She laughed again, and Luffy joined in, catching the attention of the two.

"Oh, hello there" the girl smiled "are you friends of Usopp?"

"Yes, Yes!" Usopp grinned and cut in "these guys are part of my pirate crew!" I grinned along while Zoro was silent, neither denying his story lie or agreeing while Nami just sighed.

"We've come to ask for a ship" Luffy said bluntly, which had Nami groaning and holding her head.

"Oh-"

"Absolutely Not!" A voice cuts in, those of us on the ground spun to see a tall man, he wore an old fashioned black suit, Black hair gelled back and round glasses sat on his nose which he used his palm, fingers spread open to adjust the rims.

"Klahadore!" the girl exclaimed "please, they were just visiting me" she pleaded, large brown eyes watered and she coughed a bit.

"No, you see visitors only make it worse" the man addressed the cough with a wave of his hand. "Now, get off this property" he glared at Usopp specifically "filthy children are not allowed"

Usopp didn't like that very much, I glowered at the man as the teen jumped down from the tree branch and stocked up to him. "And what exactly is that supposed to mean?"

"Children of dirty pirates have no business being around those of a higher family"

That hit a cord in my stomach. How dare this man! I took this as a personal offence and was about to make it known when Usopp decked the uppity bastard. "My father is a great warrior of the sea and I will follow in his footsteps!"

"Get. Out. Of. Here."

"Gladly" Usopp stomped off while the man straightened his suit and glasses.

Luffy gave Usopp's back a proud look I would have smiled if I still wasn't upset about the man's words. The girl in the window watched sadly as we followed Usopp out. The man, who I guessed had to be a butler or someone who worked in the house, since the three kids told us her parents had died. He started to criticize the poor girl until she flinched and reluctantly closed herself into the room. Something not right was going on in the house.

* * *

"What an asshole" I flopped down onto the wooden bench, that man had grinded my nerves. Luffy had gone to follow Usopp, the teen was pretty upset with the Butler's words. Zoro, Nami and I were just outside the village with nothing else to do but wait for Luffy to return. Zoro took a seat on the ground beside the bench while Nami stayed standing, arms crossed in front of her chest. I took a heartbeat to look over the two of them, Zoro had filled out nicely since his month of starving and Nami seemed happier and also not as thin. Not that we were eating a lot of good food it was enough to get us by.

"Here" Nami cut through my thoughts, a black elastic was hanging in front of my nose. I gave her a confused glance. "Your hair is just everywhere" she sighed "tie it up"

I grinned "oh, thanks" I took the band and neatly tied my blonde, slightly blue locks into a high pony tail. Bands were hard to come by back on the island, Makino had given me a few but they usually broke in the fights with wild animals, and I didn't trust the boys with cutting it short.

We waited for hours for Luffy to return, I chatted with Nami about random things, much while Zoro napped. The sun began to set and there was still no sign of Luffy so we decided to head back into the village to grab some dinner. Once the dirt road turned to cobblestone we found Usopp slumped up against a house, crying his eyes out. He explained how he and Luffy were sitting on a cliff near the water and overheard the Butler's plans to raid the town and kill the girl in the mansion, whose name was Kaya. Apparently the bastard butler used to be a pirate. When I asked about Luffy, Usopp had said he was hit by a hypnotism attack and fell off the cliff. I laughed it off, the teen was rubber a fall wasn't going to kill him. And hypnotism, HA. Sabo had tried some of the mumbo jumbo for a week when he found a discarded book, but all he could do was make Luffy fall asleep. Ace and I found it hilarious.

I assured Usopp that my Captain was fine, he'd properly wake up in the morning. But the problem with the pirates, of course we'd help a friend protect their home, and girlfriend.

Usopp denied the latter was so thankful, he offered to house us at his place for the night. It wasn't the tidiest of places but worked perfectly fine. Nami had claimed the bed so the boys and I got comfy on the floor.

We were up before dawn and as Usopp got everyone breakfast I did a quick run around the small island, passing only a few other small villages. Syrup Village had only two beach landings, the rest of the beach was cut off by cliffs. The South Bank was where we docked and the East is where I found Luffy, still out cold in the sand.

"Oi, you gonna sleep though the fight?" I knelt down and stretched out his rubber cheeks. All I got in response was a soft snore. I sighed, Luffy always looked cute while he slept. Black hair covered in sand, tanned skin and soft features. I pulled his cheeks again "Wakey wakey"

Dark iris's opened sleepily as they focused on my face he broke into a grin. "Morning Melody" his happiness lit up my world, I just couldn't describe it better.

"Come on sleepy head, we've got some pirates to fight"

Recognition lit up in his eyes "That Butler is gonna raid the village" he frowned

"We've got about an hour until they arrive, come on" I stood and motioned for him to jump onto my back. A quick sprint back to Usopp's which took all of 1.2 seconds. And we were ready to set up the ambush.

* * *

The minions were finally all down, after setting up our traps on the wrong bank we rushed to the south bank just as the cat ear wearing pirates were jumping off their ship and marching up the steep hill to the village. Between Zoro, Luffy, myself and even Usopp with his slingshot the minions were nothing. But the hypnotism leader/ captain stood off to the side by their ship, he was spitting mad. "Damn you kids! Sham, Buchi! Get out here!" The heart glasses wearing weirdo yelled. Two men, both wearing the cat ears like the other men grumbled as they exited the ship. They both had swords in hand.

"I can handle these two" Zoro grinned fiercely.

"All yours" Luffy shrugged

"I claim the hypo-freak" I called quickly and Luffy pouted with a groan.

"Stuff it" I cracked my knuckles "you get the butler"

"While you guys keep them busy, I am going raiding" Nami grinned with a greedy glint in her eye. She sneaked off as Zoro engaged the two sword wielding pirates. Luffy and I watched for a bit, but it seemed like the Hypo-freak wasn't going to let Zoro continue kicking ass.

"Be back in a moment" I grinned at Luffy and literally just appeared in front of the hypnotist. "Hi there" I smiled as he jumped back, a hand grabbed his falling hat.

"W-where did you come from?!"

"Well… when a man and a woman have sexual-"

"Just shut up and be hypnotised!" He sputtered and whipped out a small ringed blade and shoved in it my face as it swayed back and forth. Annoyed I snatched it out of the air and tossed it into the ocean, making it skip across the water a few times.

"Wha-" he watched dumbfounded

"You're annoying. **Lightning Kick** " My attack jutted out in quick sessions, with my speed everything around me slowed. I circled the man kicking and doing some flips for momentum, hits collided with his back, chest, stomach and head, the last of which sent him soring half-way up the hill and into the cliffside beside the newly fallen Sham and Buchi.

"And just what is happening here?" from out of the tree line came Klahadore, the pirate turned butler. The only difference from when we saw him last time are long claw like blades were attached like fingers to his gloves.

"Such a simple plan" he sighed "but you failed, and now I have to clean up"

The Hypnotist I was surprised to notice was semi-conscious but could only reply with a few groans while the sword wielding men began to beg for another chance. Luffy was watching him carefully, Usopp I could tell was shaking in his boats. The butler began to sway. This caused his men to freak out and even those minions that were just waking up started to run back to their boat.

"No! Captain! Please don't!" some yelled.

I watched as he moved up and down the hill, his moves were all over the place and almost random. Usopp was freaking out about how he had disappeared, but he was just moving too fast to be seen. A quick look at Luffy and I could tell he knew where he was, but Zoro, was just a tad too slow and couldn't keep up. Claw marks started to litter the dirt and shred the men who tried to escape and those that were still out cold.

He can't see where he's going I noticed. I had this trouble first starting out with the devil fruit, but soon my eyes caught up to speed. But this guy was completely blind. He stopped suddenly about half way down the hill. Breathless he calmly wiped the blood from his blades, no one was free from a hit, other than Luffy, Usopp and myself. Zoro had a small dribble of blood coming from his calf.

"There" he turned to Luffy and Usopp at the top of the hill "now, just to deal with you"

Usopp stepped forwards bravely, "You're plan has failed! This is the end for you!" he sent off a volley of different shots, though none had managed to hit. The butler was faster than them.

"Klahadore!" out from the direction of the village Kaya arrives, at her heels are the three kids that followed Usopp around yesterday.

"Ojo-sama, just what are you doing here?" his voice was dangerously low.

The poor girl was shaking. "I found Merry… he told me everything. How could you….. I will give you all my money, just leave us alone!" the three kids were protectively around her, sticks in hand.

Klahadore sighed, "It's not that easy, Ojo-sama" and growled out "it's not just the money! Being a pirate became boring" I scoffed, why'd be become one in the first place then "all I want now is a nice quiet life, with more money then I know what to do with and no pirate reputation or troubles, letting you live is not an option"

"You're such an idiot" Luffy spat "not worthy of being called a pirate" he looked around, "stepping on your comrades, after travelling with them you get bored and throw them away?!"

"You know nothing, I will get what I want!" he roared like a child.

"No!" Kaya's voice wavered and her hands shook, from somewhere in her shall she was hiding a pistol. Her small hands were barely covering the hilt. "I won't let you Klahadore" she was crying. The boys around her legs exclaimed loudly, worried about the weapon.

"You aren't strong enough to pull that trigger" he mocked. In a split second he rushed forwards, Kaya squeezed the trigger. I watched the bullet miss and hit the sand. Kaya, noticing her miss squeezed her eyes shut expecting to get hit but Usopp was the first to react and put himself in between of the two of them. Fist flew and connected with the pirate, destroying his glasses. Unfortunately Klahadore was quick to retaliate, Usopp was flung back with four deep slashes across his chest.

"Usopp!" the kids and Kaya yelled and ran to his side.

I ran up the hill to his side and looked over the wound. It was deep but didn't hit anything important. I ripped his shirt and started to put pressure on the wound, Usopp was glaring at the butler, surprisingly not unconscious

"You can't stop me"

But he can. I glanced at Luffy who was quiet and obviously ticked off at the butler's actions and words.

"No one can stop me!" the man was almost crazed now, broken glasses hung off his ears, previously well maintained hair was in disarray and blood soaked suit.

Luffy started walking, head held high and fists clenched. The few feet down the hill, Klahadore was covered by Luffy's shadow pulling him from a crazed laugh. "I don't like you" Luffy said slowly.

"You are in my way" the butler swiped out but missed as Luffy stepped to the left, as a counter his gomu-gomu pistol smacked right in the middle of his face, a loud snap was his nose and the rest of his glasses breaking.

The fight started, Luffy was dominating even when Klahadore started the technique from beforehand, but Luffy was faster.

Zoro I could see was finished up with the other cat pirate members and was just watching the fight intently. Kaya was crying over Usopp, unsure about what to do to help. "I'm fine" Usopp said quietly.

"You're gonna need stitches" I commented, lifting the torn pieces of his shirt to look at the wound, the blood had slowed and the wounds were pretty cleanly cut and easy fix if I had the supplies. "Do you have medical supplies?" I asked the girl, keeping her busy while the kids were running around like their heads were cut off.

"… yes, yes there is"

"Ok, you take the three chickens and go grab it, or at least get some of the stuff set up for when we get there. He's not going to die in the next ten minutes. Once Luffy's finished we'll get him cleaned up"

"Ok" Kaya lead the boys back towards the village, moving quickly.

"I'm gonna die!" Usopp cried as they disappeared through the trees.

"No you're not" I wacked him up the head. And scoffed.

"My plan cannot fail!" the butler screamed. I looked down the hill to see that Luffy had clung himself onto the butler, and thrown his head back stretching to its full length "Gomu-Gomu Bell!" Direct hit!

Luffy unwound himself from the now unconscious pirate, grabbed his leg and with a big swing tossed him into the few pirate henchmen that were awake. "Now get out of here!"

The group were quick to follow his orders, those that were able to walk picked up their fallen captain and first mate as well as the rest of their crew mates and quickly boarded their ship and took off.

Luffy watched them go, standing strong and only a few scoffs and cuts.

"Come on Zoro" he grinned and helped the swordsmen to his feet, the few wounds that he had still slowly bled through his white shirt. Why he still wears white ones I'm not sure.

Nami came out of the trees, somehow now behind everyone, slung across her back was a cloth bag full to the brim. "So how was the fight?" she asked while grinning.

Usopp, having leant up to see her arrive groaned and rolled his eyes.

I laughed "looked like you had a good time as well"

Kaya took a bit longer to return with the three kids, her other butler, a small man with white curly hair was also injured by the pirate. Kaya had already patched him up and returned to the bank. With his help they patched up Usopp's chest in no time, while I put a few bandages on Zoro and Luffy's cuts.

My stomach growled loudly as everyone finished up, Luffy laughed "alright let's get some food!"

"You all are welcome to come back to my house, I'm sure we have some items we can put on the barbeque for dinner" the small blonde girl offered "it's the least I can do for you"

Nami rolled her eyes "I hope you have enough food for the two of them"

"I'm sure we do"

It was the best food we've had in a long time. Luffy and I filled our stomachs to the brim and then some. We didn't know when we would next have this much to eat. We laughed and fully enjoyed the party outside in the backyard of the mansion. A campfire was lit, drinks were passed around and Usopp was telling stories while the three kids were acting it out with a flourish.

Even Kaya was laughing and joining in on the fun, there seemed to be a new light in her eyes. She even joined us in falling asleep were we could, she was laying against the large tree close to Usopp. Nami and Zoro were close by as I fell sleep lying against Luffy's ballooned stomach, as the fire was dying.

* * *

Morning came for most well past sunrise. I looked around to see Zoro, Nami and Luffy still sleeping. Usopp and the kids were gone and I could see Kaya inside the mansion windows with her white haired butler. I gave Luffy a nudge to wake him up, sleep filled eyes opened as I bent down over his face and kissed him slowly allowing a small private moment while alone, and my hair flowed down like a curtain blocking the sun from our eyes.

"That's a nice way to wake up, Mel" he wiggled his eyebrows, as we separated. I laughed no matter how much he acted like a child, he still was a hormonal teenager like myself. I tucked the strands behind an ear just as Zoro opened his eyes slowly "Morning" he didn't seem to have noticed the moment, not that we would have minded.

"Good morning" I grinned.

The swordsmen nudged Nami awake, which earned him a hard wack.

"Nice to see you all slept well" Kaya came out the back door with a basket of fruit. I got up and took an apple from her with a smile, Luffy stretched out his hands to take the basket from the girl, and I quickly snatched two from him and tossed them to our other crew members.

"I guess you won't be staying for much longer?" she asked.

Luffy, with his mouthful answered "yeah, we've got to move on, find some more crew members, like a cook!"

She smiled "than please, I have something I want to give you"

She and her butler led us down to the south bank. "Oh my gosh!" I gasped as the ship came into view.

Sitting on the water was a small ship, it was so much larger than our little dingy. It had two sails, one large and another smaller one colored with red stripes and looked to be a carnival type. The figure head was large enough for someone to sit on, that I knew Luffy already loves and was the shape of a sheep head. A small birds nest sat on top of the main mast.

"I call it The Going Merry Go" the butler said with pride "I designed it myself. And Ojo-sama and I would like to give it to you"

"Thank you so much!" I grinned, he began to explain how everything works which Nami listened closely, I with only half an ear and the boys completely ignored. Instead they were the first aboard. Luffy sling-shot up to the deck, I followed Zoro up the small rope latter.

There were four level of decks, the main one was quite large, with the mast in the middle. There were three doors on this level one was beside a set of stairs leading to a small deck behind the figure head, the bow of the ship. This room was a storage room, it also held two cannons and cannon balls. The other rooms were side by side, the smallest had nothing in it, and the other was a larger storage room, and led to the small bathing room in the back but it had a door in the floor that lead to a bedroom. Beside this storage room was another set of stairs that led up to the next level where the kitchen was located. It had a dining room table and a good size refrigerator and full sized oven. The room didn't take up the whole deck, which allowed a walkway for a full 360 view, the helm was in the kitchen, also a smaller lamb head shape that had a window to steer from and was close by the door. A few more steps up on this deck lead to the last and smallest deck facing stern.

"It's amazing" I said running from room to room, exploring everything. It was fully stocked with everything we might need. Luffy was just as happy as I was, he popped up from the below deck room from a trap door on the main deck beside the mast. "This is the boy's room!" he called "there's tons of hammocks hanging!"

Nami stepped onto the deck, having heard everything from the butler. "You can have the bedroom Nami" I said "I wanna sleep in a hammock!"

"Then you can hang a hammock in our room, you shouldn't have to stay with the boys" she huffed, crossing her arms.

I shrugged, while Luffy pouted "doesn't matter to me"

Once we explored everything, and I had a hammock hung in one of the corners of the girl's room Nami and Zoro moved what little stuff was left of the dingy, which was mostly dried food. I had my side bag filled with everything I own. Nami convinced me to take one of the dresser drawers, I placed my one change of clothes inside, which was just a t-shirt as I liked to wear the bikini top. I put my blue goggles inside as well as the cloth flower I kept. Nami was stunned I didn't have more clothes, I just shrugged "never had a ton of clothes, just one change usually"

We met with the boys on the main deck as a large commotion came from the top of the hill. Zoro hopped down to stop Usopp who had somehow tripped and rolled down, almost ramming into Merry. He had a large overstuffed pack on his back. His muffled thanks was barely heard from beneath Zoro's foot. Once he was straightened out and dropped the pack he grinned "thanks a lot, again. Maybe we will meet again on the sea. I'm finally going to head out and become a great warrior!"

"What are you talking about?" asked Luffy as he adjusted his hat, leaning against the railing "get on here already"

I laughed, Nami and Zoro were looking expectantly at the curly haired teen. It was obvious that Luffy was going to ask him to join. And he is a really good shot.

"Yes!" he jumped up and cheered "I'm the captain!"

"No way!" Luffy yelled down at him "I'm the captain!" he laughed, knowing Usopp wasn't that serious about it.

Soon enough Nami was directing everyone on pulling the Going Merry from the bank. Once the wind had caught the sail we all turned to wave good bye to Kaya and her butler. Even the three kids had shown up to say their good byes. Usopp waved wildly until they were out of site. Luffy then took him on a tour, as Nami settled on our course and Zoro plopped down against the mast for a nap, even though we had only woken up a few hours ago. I grinned to myself and went to the bow, looking out on the ocean. Finally on a proper ship in nearly 10 years, a thought about my father crossed my mine. I wonder how he's doing, still famous from the few papers I managed to read back home. Does he think of me…? I know the dangers if anyone found out, but I can take care of myself now and Luffy knows, Ace too. I am my own pirate now, I won't be in his shadow. I promised myself this a few years ago when Ace talked about the biggest pirates around. I was going to grow bigger than him, alongside Luffy.

I grinned as Luffy called me down. "Mel! Crew meeting! We need a Pirate mark!"


End file.
